Back to Bee Rock

6/10 - 6/12
2016 bag nights: 7

We talked about meeting friends (also have 3 kids) to go camping. Since I am the backpacker in the bunch, I got to pick where we would rendezvous. I decided that another visit to Bee Rock was in order after Kid #2 and I enjoyed it last summer.

We decided to spend 2 nights, unfortunately summer weather showed up and the temperatures were in the 90s all 3 days. Thankfully, it wasn't too humid, so the shade was ok, but in the sun, it was hot. I was glad I had two tarps for shade, I ended up hanging one above our tent to help keep it from heating up during the day.

Unfortunately, there was not much of a view from our sites, but there was a short path down to the river, the kids loved getting muddy/wet.

We hiked up to the top of Bee Rock again, even the littlest ones did great.

We all (the adults) enjoyed the views from the top

The oddest thing was there was a motorcycle rally on the Laurel County side of the campground (thankfully, we were on the Pulaski County side). If it had just been me there, I would have been really annoyed at 500 bikers, but the kids loved it. They even got to sit on a couple of the bikes.

I asked a couple people what was going on, it turns out it was the inauguration of "The Rattlesnake" part of the road near by was going to be given a name to encourage bikers to come ride similar to "The Dragon" in NC. The "opening ceremony" was at the Bee Rock boat ramp.

One last sunset

A great couple of days outside and a nice way to catch up with friends. I highly recommend Bee Rock for family camping.

Fireflies in the Smokies

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Elkmont/Little River Trailhead
6/6 - 6/8/16
2016 bag nights: 5

I read about the synchronous fireflies in the Smokies and thought it sounded like a great kids backpacking trip since the trail is pretty flat.

There are 3 sites along the Little River Trail (21, 24, 30). Site 21 is about 2.5 miles from the trailhead so even my 5 year old would be able to come. So, I marked my calendar to make sure I would get camp site reservations for the time when it seemed the fireflies would be doing their thing. And no problem at all until a couple days before we are going to leave and I get an email from the NPS saying Site 21 has been closed because of bear activity. I looked at the map and decided the kids could make it to Site 24 (about 4.5 miles) and called the backcountry office early the next morning. It actually worked out great because I had reservations for 3 nights and the first day/nights weather looked terrible. Because my reservation had been canceled, I got that nights fees back.


Anyway, we started at the Little River Trailhead next to the Elkmont Campground and headed up the trail. Lots of Dayhikers in the first couple of miles, but a very nice trail/old road to walk on.

The kids had fun climbing on rocks...

looking at waterfalls (Huskey Branch Falls)...

and the Little River itself.

Not to mention snails and butterflies

After the bridge over the river, the trail becomes a little more rougher and wetter, but still easy for little legs.

After a couple hours, we got to camp and got situated.

Site 24 is a short walk to the Little River where there are lots of rocks to climb over and to throw.

That evening we talked with some of the neighbors and borrowed a campfire to roast marshmallows. While we were chatting and waiting for the fireflies, a deer wandered out of the woods near by.

The fireflies started appearing a bit after 9pm but did not really get going until about 9:30, which is way past the usual bedtime. The kids watched for a little bit and then climbed into bed. I managed to stay up until maybe 10:30 before it was my time as well.

One of the "problems" with backpacking in the Southeast is it is hard to find views to enjoy sunrises/sunsets. But, I always like how the tops of the trees start to glow while everything down low is still in shadow, sort of like our version of alpenglow.

 Sunrise through the trees

We were staying at the same site for the second night, so there was lots of time to explore the riverbank.

We also hiked a bit further up the Little River trail as well as the Rough Creek Trail and dragged back a lot of dry wood for a fire that night.

The next morning it was time to pack up and head back to the car. The morning was a little chilly so the kids hiked in PJs with Buffs on their heads.

One last look at the Little River Trail.

Summary: great weather, kids played nicely, fireflies were cool. The oldest asked this morning when we were going back to the Smokies, I think the trip was a success.

Grays Arch Trailhead

Thursday 5/19/16

Parked at the Greys Arch Trailhead, there were only a couple of cars in the lot, much different than the weekend before. I headed off towards Greys Arch and took a couple of the side paths before stopping for a lunch with a view.



Then Greys Arch

Then a beer and a view on Hanson's Point.

Lots of wildflowers along the trails.

Still love the Mountain Laurel

Looks like a coreopsis of some sort

might be "annual fleabane" Erigeron annuus

Yellow Stargrass?

Blackberries

Tree root and sandstone

"spikenard" Aralia racemosa ?

coreopsis?

Blueberries?

Only saw two groups of people. The first group of 6 or so college looking kids made lots of noise before I was 10 minutes down the trail, I just stayed off the trail and they never saw me. The second group was 5 guys from Cleveland that were down backpacking for a couple of days. They had a little bit of info about the area from a friend and were trying to get to the river to swim/jump off of a rock they had heard about. I showed them where they were on my phone and described the trail up to the swinging bridge and jump rock, hopefully they had a good time.

All in all, a great 5 hours in the gorge.