Great Smoky Mountains

Fall colors on the road

One of the most beautiful National Parks we have been to so far is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  It was simply gorgeous!  The air was crisp and cool, the trees were at peak Fall colors, and the deer running along the side of the road made it so I didn't want to leave.  There was thick fog at the top of the mountains so we couldn't go all the way to the top like we wanted to, but the vistas we did see were well worth the visit.

see the fog?

see the fog over the colorful trees?

At the bottom of the mountains was a strange little town.  It had unusual, fake-looking attractions like an upside down building, King Kong climbing a building, the Hatfields and McCoys dinner show, lots of mini-golf and go-carts with strange names (even one with flying pigs),  a castle, a lumberjack feud show, something that looked like Mt. Rushmore with other people on it, several Mellow Mushroom Pizza restaurants, and even the Titanic crashing into an iceberg!  I began to wonder about the mushrooms on the pizzas they were serving!

From there, we drove to Morristown, where we visited the Crockett Tavern and Museum.  It was a fascinating recreation of the family tavern built on the site originally owned by the Crockett family.  The tavern had interesting frontier artifacts, and a lot of history and biographical information about Davy Crockett on the tour.