My Mom and I planned on taking this route home to do the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Smoky Mountains.
Let me just tell you about this portion of the BR Parkway. It’s beautiful but terrifying! I do not do well with heights and driving on the edge of cliffs messes with my head. Why don’t they have guardrails?!
I pulled over a few times to take pictures and breathe.
I was very happy when we entered the Smoky Mountain Park!
As we came into the park, there were a TON of people taking photos and painting. Turned out to be a Plein Air Painters National Conference and there were 1,000 people at the park for the week.
In the field was a young Elk and then another one came walking out of the mountains and into the area where people were painting. The park rangers were on high alert for animals with the amount of people in the park. Myself and maybe 6 others were about 50 yards from the one in the field and we were told if it came any closer we would need to take several steps back.
Well, it came closer but how do you move back and give up great photos?! We took photos as we stepped back! Here is one from my phone but the majority are on my real camera.
I went back to the car to get my other lens and when I came back, another Elk was in the area.
This one got too close for comfort and lunged at some people who walked maybe 5 feet from it like it was no big deal.
We went on a drive through the mountains to get to our hotel. Here are a few photos from my phone.
Then we came across a bear playing and rolling around. This is the best picture I could get.
The next day was the drive home. That last 8 hrs was brutal! Such a great trip but I was EXHAUSTED!
This trip consisted of:
3,000+ miles driven
66+ hours driven according to the dashboard
10 states
6 beaches
4 islands
2 bears
1 jumping stingray
A lot of gators
A lot of jellyfish
1 shark
1 tornado missed by 10 minutes
An unscheduled trip to Florida
A lot of reclaiming
Incredibly thankful that God gave us all this trip together and protected and redeemed.
Butterflies & Bumblebees 