Smoky Mtns Trip Day 3 - Clingman's Dome, Sliding Rock & Pretty Place

While planning / researching for this trip, I came across a picture of Clingman's Dome. As soon as I confirmed that it was located within the park, we knew that this stop was a "must" on our list! I read a handful of reviews - "strenuous but worth it!" & "Go early to avoid crowds and parking chaos" were the two that kept repeating.

We left our hotel by 7 that day - hoping to get to Clingman's Dome by 8 and avoiding the main crowds. We loved driving through the park with minimal traffic!

We bypassed the Rockefeller Memorial and took the turn off to Clingman's Dome - 7 miles of twisting & climbing roads. Beautiful! As we got closer to the summit, we could see more and more cloud cover (we are in the Smokies after all!). We started to wonder if we would even be able to see anything from Clingman's Dome! We arrived at the parking lot and got a prime spot!

Potty break before heading up the mountain...Matt grabbed the camera after using the restroom. This sign! Too funny!

It was a little eerie walking to the trailhead with all the fog surrounding us. There was a quiet around us as the morning was waking up as well. Very surreal.

The wildlife - flowers and animals were amazing! Luckily we didn't come across any bears. We DID see evidence of a bear coming from the wooded side and walking down the mountain (through the meadow area). There were big paw prints from the water puddles (not defined bear paws though) and the tall grass was pushed down much like a bear (or other big animal) had just walked through it. It kinda makes hair on the back of your neck stick up! I couldn't believe that Matt didn't snap a picture of it. We did make a little bit more noise as we walked up the path though!

This is the path - it was a nice, wide, paved path. However, it is pretty much straight up for 1/2 mile! It was nice to do this hike at our own pace - no slow people ahead of us, no fast people behind us!

Can you see the parking lot below?

We made it!! Even with the sun popping out, you can still see it is very foggy.

We walked around the Dome and enjoyed the views - wasn't much to see with all of the fog, but it was still pretty neat. Clingman's Dome is the highest point in Tennessee and the 2nd highest East of the Mississippi. Impressive! Every once in a while, the wind would kick up and the sun would peak out, giving us a nice view with minimal cloud cover.

We made our way back down the mountain, enjoying the views and the fact that we weren't walking UP the path at that point in time!

Looks like a Picasso Rock!

We left the parking lot for Clingman's Dome and headed back to the main park road, then doubled back to Rockefeller Memorial.

Family Picture, a few of just the kids & Titanic!

As we got closer to Cherokee, NC, we made one last stop at a pull off to see the view. We had actually driven past it, saw the view and turned around to park in the parking lot!

As we were there, we took some pictures, leaned on the railing and just took it all in. Another couple was coming towards us just as we were starting to head back to the van. I heard, "Matt??, Is that Matt??"  Come to find out this couple is also from the QC area and the wife used to work with Matt at Option Health! Small, small world! She had seen a previous Facebook post, so she knew we were in the area. But really - what are the odds of us running in to each other in the park?

We stopped in Cherokee for lunch (It was still early, restaurant wasn't even open yet!) and then headed south to drive through Nantahala National Forest.

We had two stops planned along this road - Sliding Rock and Looking Glass Falls. We realized how busy this area is pretty quickly. It was a warm Sunday afternoon. We are sure that there were a lot of locals out, enjoying the day with family at the waterhole! Would love to do this drive again on a weekday!

We stopped at Sliding Rock - this is a place that Matt has talked about since before we were married. He visited Sliding Rock in high school and this fun spot has been on his "bring the kids here" list ever since!

It was very busy. We ended up parking at least 1/2 mile down the road and hiking back to the entrance. It was worth it though! I (again) opted to stay behind and take pictures.

Matt went first, followed by Will, Maddie, Alex & Kaitee.

The second time down, I recorded them!

The third (and last) time, Maddie, Alex & Will were the only ones sliding. They did a train.

We dried off, got dressed than hit the road again. We drove by Looking Glass Falls but there wasn't a place to park for 1/2 mile in either direction. When you see multiple people walking up with lawn chairs, coolers and inflatables - yeah, we quickly decided to bypass that stop. We left that area and headed to our last stop of the day, Pretty Place Chapel in Cleveland, SC.

While there were distractions (a woman talking on her phone in her loud/normal voice, call gets dropped, phone rings again...repeat mutiple times!), we were glad we made the drive to this serene, beautiful chapel. The view was inspiring, to say the least. We were surprised at the heavy traffic at the chapel, but again wondered if it would be more quiet on a week day.

We headed to Hendersonville for the night - pizza and swimming (with a fun water slide!). A full, fun day with lots of walking, exploring and taking in God's beauty!