The Smoky Mountains remain a refuge area for the Cherokee Indians. During the Trail of Tears, they often escaped into the mountains.
We stopped to walk up Clingman's Dome. From here, the Cherokee Indians could see the Magic Lake offering healing. The observation deck was built to provide a 360 degree view from the highest point in the Smoky mountains.
After driving through some more of the park, we arrived in Gatlinburg, TN. We had no idea that it was a little carnival type town. It is two major roads of attraction after attraction. There are a lot of museum type activities for kids. Ripley's Believe It or Not has multiple locations with different activities inside. There was fair food being sold all over. It was a fun little find. We walked around for a couple of hours just looking at all of the shops.
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| Gatlinburg, TN |
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| Folk Music with Rocking Chairs to watch |
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| Save a horse, ride a cowboy! |
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| Arcade Shooting Course |
Josh took part in a free Moonshine Tasting. There were multiple distilleries throughout the town, but Ole Smoky Moonshine is pretty popular around here. The entire crew was pretty entertaining! Gatlinburg was the first place in Tennessee to legalize the sale of alcohol.
After Gatlinburg, we drove to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN to see how far away it is. We are excited to check it out soon!
