Monday, May 27, 2013

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina ~ Day 3

We decided to take a hike today from our Deep Creek campground, about a 4.6 mile walk by three waterfalls. We started by passing Juney Whank Falls, a nice, high falls. (Waterfalls never take good pictures, unfortunately.)  
There were lots of options for continued hiking, and we consulted our trail guide, but we kept taking wrong turns to continue on the trail to the other two waterfalls. We ended-up backtracking and taking a different route to the other two falls, which was basically walking a gravel road that was once used for driving, so not much of a “hike,” rather a “walk.”

We passed Toms Branch Falls across the stream 

 
and continued (past lots of children, strollers, and people in sandals, re-emphasizing the lack of a “hike”) onto the Indian Creek Falls, which were nice as well.  Nice waterfalls, no doubt, but a very different outing than originally planned. 
 


We also decided that today was shower day! We are drycamping at Deep Creek Campground and are pretty good on water consumption, but if we don’t have to take military showers, we won’t. There are hot, clean, $3 showers just past the park entrance, so there we went and it was a great way to spend $6!
 
After getting all clean, we decide to meander the town of Bryson City, the town just outside the Deep Creek area of the Great Smoky’s National Park.  It isn’t a big town, no doubt, but plenty of restaurants that serve (newly) squeaky-clean people like us, so we tried the Bryson City Cork & Bean Restaurant.  Bryson City Cork & Bean used to be a coffee and wine shop, but expanded to dining a few years ago –Suzanne had a wonderful chicken, pesto, gouda, avocado crepe; Brad had a hamburger – way to bust out of your shell and eat something different, Brad! :-)

Oh, when we were hiking we passed a swarm of butterflies – took a few tries, but we were able to get one decent photo, but it doesn’t do justice to the deep blues & turquoise colors on the wings.
 
Easy and affordable - no matter where you are! 

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