Laurel Falls

Friday
It was partly sunny when we first got up, but the clouds soon took over, and by the time we were packing the car, it was raining quite hard. We left the cabin at 10, and drove to a nearby Pottery that we had passed the last several day going into the park, and I fancied a look. It turned out to be a much bigger place than it appeared from the road. It is family run, and the father has been working at it for 30 years. They had all sorts of beautiful stuff, and I came away with a couple of items. It’s the sort of place you need to know about, as it’s out of central Gatlinburg. By the time we came out the rain had stopped, and we continued into the Park. We stopped at the Visitor Centre and did a short level trail out to Cataract Falls, as much as Roger can currently manage with his knee, and then continued on the Little River road for a while as yesterday, until we came to Laurel Falls trailhead. Even though Roger was unable to manage more than a short level trail, he was quite happy for me to head out on my own. I hadn’t previously planned on doing Laurel Falls, as we have done it a couple of times before, but it’s a popular trail and moderately easy so I knew I would be OK and safe on my own. The top right photo was taken from the trail, showing some of the mountain laurel bordering the trail. And below are the Falls themselves. We then continued to Alum Cave trail, where I hiked as far as Arch Rock (lower centre), where you can see the trail goes through the cleft in the rock. Roger walked a little way along the flat and then turned back. My hike was three miles return, which put me well over my 10,000 steps, and by the time I returned to the car it was around 4pm and time to start driving home. We ran into some torrential rain in places, but arrived home safely at a little before 11pm, having stopped in Lexington area to eat.

Steps for the day: 19,191