Fall is definitely one of our favorite times of the year. Jonathan and I got the itch a couple of weekends ago to get outside with the kids and puts some miles under our boots in order to be in one of the most beautiful places (we think anyways) in the world! The Smokies are such a neat place to be this time of year and we feel especially blessed to be living right in the heart of it all.
Andrew's Bald is one of my personal favorite hikes. You start up at Clingman's Dome parking lot, which it just a few hundred feet short of being the highest spot in the smokies and you walk about 1.8 miles to a bald. A bald is an unexplained clearing high on a mountain - it is believed that the balds were created by grazing cattle belonging to former mountain dwellers such as the Native Americans and/or former families who used to live in the park. Anyhow, it's such a beautiful spot because there are only a few scattered trees and shrubs but other than that the view is spacious and wide open - it gives the the feeling of being 'on top of the world.' We took Hannah and Eli to this favorite spot and they seemed to enjoy the hike and the destination.
This past weekend we went on a shorter hike to a historical place called the Walker Sister's cabin - it is an old homestead. The term 'old' is used loosely seeing as up until just a couple of decades ago a family of sisters resided there. We had fun exploring this place - as we always do. We also got to break in a couple of awesome backpack kid carriers! They were given to us by our friends at the Happy Hiker! THANKS Barrett and Megan, we love you guys! It is such a special treat to have these, I know they'll see PLENTY of trail miles! The kids love them and so do Jonathan and I! We hop you enjoy these photos.
