Back at Pigeon Forge

As we continue our loop around Tennessee, we returned to Pigeon Forge for 10 days.  Gotta get our money's worth out of those Dollywood season passes!!  We returned to Walden's Creek RV Park as its price really can't be beat for Passport America members (though we did take a look at some other, more expensive, RV parks while we were there...just in case).  Our experience this time was much better than last time - I was able to catch up with our host the day after we arrived, and by not plugging in the car we avoided any unexpected charges.

Our second campsite at Walden's Creek - in the back of the
park this time

Our first order of business was to head to Dollywood to see Rebecca St. James, who was there as part of the Flower and Food Festival.  Aaron and I listened to her CDs a lot in college, so it was exciting to see her live at Dollywood!  

Rebecca St. James - live!

Out and about in the area we discovered that it was a LOT busier this trip than our first time through in May.  We did go on one hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Laurel Falls - but it was so busy (and hard to park) that it discouraged us from attempting any other hikes in the national park.

Laurel Falls

Aaron out on a rock in the middle of the falls

Unfortunately later that day Aaron's phone got splashed on a water ride at Dollywood and died - despite Apple's claim that that model could withstand being submerged under 3ft of water for 30 minutes without damage - so we lost his better photos of the falls.  So, PSA for you: don't trust Apple's water resistance rating!

Having not completely learned our lesson, we attempted to go back to the national park again - this time for the Cades Cove driving trail - we figured it was so far from Pigeon Forge and didn't require parking, so it would be ok...wrong!!  We went mostly to enjoy the drive and view all the old buildings on the route, but it seems that several people were there only to find black bears, and those people backed everyone up on the driving trail going ~1mph (slow enough it didn't register on the speedometer) around the 11 mile trail.  We gave up around 2/3 through and took the escape road out, and only stopped at one building because the traffic was so frustrating and we just wanted to get out of it.  We weren't the only ones with this problem...one of our favorite RV podcasts experienced the same thing in April...seems that with everyone vaccinated and schools out everything everywhere is just packed.  So, this time we did learn our lesson and didn't attempt to go back to the national park for any reason.

We stopped at this first log cabin on the trail

Cool thing I learned here - some log cabins
cut the logs at angles as you see here to 
route rainwater away from the structure

Fortunately we had reservations (read: guaranteed entry and limited crowds) for a couple of shows in Pigeon Forge.  We returned to our all-time favorite dinner show, Dolly Parton's Stampede, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  We tried out the Comedy Barn for the first time, and though it was fun, it wasn't to the same caliber as the dinner shows in Pigeon Forge, so we probably won't return.

Before the show at the Stampede

The patriotic end of show

Pre-show at Comedy Barn

Patriotic end-of-show at Comedy Barn

We discovered a couple of remote outside areas to visit away from the national park to fill our remaining 'nice days' time.  We drove up a narrow and winding road to the Bluff Mountain fire tower...I found this on Google Maps and it was well rated, and it was quite a baffling experience.  The fire tower was behind a wide open gate at a cluster of cell towers.  It was clearly commonly frequented based on all the graffiti, but there was basically NOTHING in the way of safety precautions on the rickety-feeling tower.  Aaron made it to the top but I chickened out halfway up.  You were supposed to be able to see for miles, but it was so foggy and cloudy (it rained most of the week) that we couldn't see beyond the mountain top.

Aaron at the top, unconcerned about the
risk as always. 

We also entered the Little Valley Mountain Resort to hike a nicely maintained, pretty, and relatively short Headrick Top Trail to a small waterfall.  The trail wasn't busy at all and we enjoyed the quiet and serene setting - and the beautiful resort that we drove through on the way.

At the small waterfall

And to close this out...just a handful of Dollywood pictures!

AMAZING cinnamon bread - classic
Dollywood eats!

One of the bald eagles living at Dollywood

This was a less fulfilling week at Pigeon Forge due to the rainy weather and extreme crowds, but we still really enjoyed our time there.  One more stop to go on our Tennessee trip!