We took the day today to 1. celebrate my birthday and 2. spend some time together as a family!
We drove up there Cataloochee Valley where we've been before trying to see elk, but were not successful this time! Because it was a warm day and we didn't dive through until almost noon, we had not expected to see any. But, boy did we!! There was a HUGE buck in a field and as we drove by with the windows down, we could hear others in the woods bugling! It was the first time we'd ever heard that!
We started off the day by going to Clingman's Dome near the North Carolina/Tennessee border! It is a pretty popular place so I was a bit surprised at how STEEP the half mile walk up to the top was! We calculated it was probably about a 12.5% grade! But, the view when we got to the top was beautiful, even if it was a bit hazy!
We then drove south toward Highlands, NC. Just before we got to Highlands, we stopped and did a short 2.5 mile hike on the Ranger Falls Loop trail. It was another fairly steep and challenging hike!
After all that "strenuous" hiking, we were all ready for dinner but also very dirty and sweaty! We found a fresh foods grocery store with a grill and pizza joint and opted for that and sat outside and enjoyed watching all the rich people walk around town to their fancy dinners:)
We drove home through Cashiers and got a great glimpse of Bad Creek and Jocassee! The sun had just set and we were in the "last light" part of the day as we drove and it made for a magical end to our day!
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| Elk in Cataloochee |
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| Base of Clingman's Dome |
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| Made it to the top of Clingman's Dome |
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| Back to bouldering at the base of Clingman's Dome |
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| Ranger Falls Loop Trail |
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| It's been really dry lately so the falls was more of a trickle;) |
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Pretty tree in downtown Highlands - it was still too early
to see much color even that far north! |
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