Great Smokey Mountains: Day 3 - Exploring and Relaxing in Nature with NO Electricity

May 31, 2020

Day 3: A full day in nature with no electricity and nothing on the schedule.

We had thought about making the 5:45AM sunrise hike but decided to sleep in after 2 very early mornings. We enjoyed coffee and breakfast on the front porch and left around 10AM to hike and explore Boulevard Trail, one of the longest trails that eventually takes you to the bottom, which we only went a small way down.

We found the famous rock stack which is actual "peak" of the entire LeConte Mountain where the custom is to find a rock to add to the stack, causing the "peak" to grow by an inch or two, with every added rock. Them, we were off to Myrtle Point, which is the big sunrise 360 degree spot. I figured, if we were going to hike it in the dark to sunrise, it might be good to hike it in daylight, first. It was a very muddy hike and so nice and cool. Technically, this part of the Smokey Mountains is a rain forest and so the edges of all the trails were thick with moss of all types, which thrives in this damp and cool environment. We hiked back to the main Boulevard trail and stopped at noon to have lunch near the rock slide area. The temperature would change 20 degrees. We’d take off jackets, then sweatshirts to be comfortable in a t-shirt when the sun was shining on us and then 20 minutes later, we would need to put them all back on again. We weren't complaining, the weather was fantastic. In fact, it had rained on the mountain for 12 straight days and the very first day with no rain was the Saturday that we hiked up. We were so lucky to have yet another day of absolutely no rain.

The views were covered with cloud on the way up but it finally cleared up towards the end. Once back, we filled up on lemonade, talked to some of the day guests that were all over camp, played ball and then a game of Old Maid before laying down to listen to some audio books and take a nap around 2:30. Then, Carter and Delaney decided to hike back up to the big sunset spot of Cliffs Top. Our evening was relaxed, filled with cards, talking to some people, searching for Salamanders and just doing nothing, which was one of our favorite things about this special day.

I was surprised that after dinner, the kids just assumed that we were hiking back up to Cliff Tops for the majestic sunset. It felt so good to be sitting up there and just taking it all in. Hiking down in the dark, is always fun, too!