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| Camping in The Great Smoky Mountains by Heather |
Our family was in great need of some time away from the ordinary, mundane days of work and school, so we decided to go on and adventure in the Great Smoky Mountains.
We began to plan our trip to take place in October, hoping to hit the peak season for all the beautiful fall foliage.
We had never pulled our camper so far away before, so this took some thought. We had to plan the timing just right so we wouldn't be in heavy traffic going through the big cities.
We also had to plan at least one stop to allow our four dogs to take a break from the traveling and stretch their legs.
I actually left the timing and the pit stop to my husband. While he planned this out, I had a lot of other things to plan.
Planning the Trip
1. Find a Campground. Ok, this should be a simple task right? Well, I had to contact several campgrounds before I found one that was a fit for our trip.
Most of the campgrounds I had contacted closed check-in time before we would arrive. We were making about a four hour trip, so I needed to find one that would still be open when we got there.
Also, another thing on our list was to find one to accept dogs. Not just one dog, but four dogs. Some would allow up to three dogs, but we had one to many.
We wanted to stay somewhere that didn't have a gate that would be locked at a certain time each night, because we wanted to be able to come and go without worrying about the time. We never wanted to feel rushed to get back to the campground while on an adventure.
2. Plan the food for the weekend. Usually when we go camping we prepare and cook our food at the campground. However, for this trip I didn't want to spend too much time cooking or washing dishes. I was there to enjoy the beauty of God's creation and to be refreshed.
I set a goal to only eat the foods I had prepared. I didn't want us to eat out on this trip. I planned a simple menu. I thought of things I could make that we could just heat back up and it would still taste good.
The night we actually ended up heading out we ate beef stew. We had some leftover, so I packed it up to take with us.
For Breakfast
I baked homemade dairy free chocolate chip muffins and homemade dairy free pig in a blankets.
For Lunch
I prepared BBQ chicken sliders and homemade potato salad for our first day. I also had items to make sandwiches. We had the leftover beef stew too.
For Supper
I prepared a taco salad meal for our first night at the campground. This meal was a layered meal with tortilla chips, brown rice, refried beans, ground turkey seasoned with homemade taco seasoning mix, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and salsa. For the two of us who cannot have dairy, I had vegan cheese to substitute the dairy cheese.
The second night we had grass fed beef hamburgers and potato salad.
For Snacks
I made no bake peanut butter bars and boiled eggs. I packed raw almonds, raisins, dried cranberries, grass fed beef jerky, fresh fruit and veggies. I had already prepared the fruit and veggies before we left. They were all washed and chopped.
I packed a lot of the snacks in individual snack size bags. This made it easy for me to reload my backpack for each day. I made sure I had enough snacks for everyone.
Drinks
We had bottled water at every meal and throughout the day, with the exception of my husband and I having a cup of coffee in the mornings.
3. I checked the weather before packing. This was very important. I was not sure what the temperature would be going that far north. I wanted to be prepared if the weather was going to be cooler than the area where we live. It turned out they were predicting nice temperatures, but rain was in the forecast each day.
We were determined to not let a little rain ruin our trip, so everyone packed boots and rain coats.
4. Plan activities and sight seeing before arriving. I knew we would more than likely have some changes in our plans, so I kept it very flexible.
I searched online for things to do in the Franklin, North Carolina area. I shared the information I found with my family to see what interested them.
Then, I compiled everyone's interests together to create a plan. I checked the distances between the places we wanted to visit before going. This helped me to put things in order so we weren't doing a lot of back tracking, and we could see more in a small amount of time. I didn't want to waste daylight driving too much. Each stop was on the way to see another lovely view or to do some hiking.
Most of my planning was around hiking trails and waterfalls we wanted to see. I am glad I had already studied up on the hiking trails. This helped a lot because I knew in advance about parking for the trails. Some places don't have a lot parking. It was also good because I knew the distance most of the trails would cover as we hiked.
5. Souvenir Shopping was also on the list. We didn't want to spend too much time shopping. We are more of an outdoors family. However, we wanted to bring something back from our trip to share with others. So, I checked the weather and planned to go souvenir shopping when we couldn't hike because the rain would be a little too heavy.
6. Camping With Dogs Our daughter was given the responsibility to pack what the dogs needed for the trip. She made sure they had plenty of food and treats, blankets, clean bowls for food and water, toys, leashes, and the bags needed for clean up duty while walking the dogs.
7. Tools My Husband decided to pack tools. He really hoped we wouldn't need them, but wanted to be prepared.
How the Trip Went
I did find the perfect campground for our trip, Pines RV Park, Franklin, NC. They allow check in as late as 7:00pm. Not only that, but all four dogs were welcome.
Also, my husband decided to leave the night before we had originally planned. It actually worked out great. The managers of the campground welcomed us to check in early. That was awesome because it gave us the entire day to explore.
We did pay an extra half day, but the price wasn't bad at all. The cost of our stay was below the budget we had planned.
It has the cleanest bathhouse I have ever seen. I didn't have to worry about our family picking up germs in there.
Our site had full hook up. (power, water, and sewage)
There was a fire ring and a picnic table, although we didn't have the chance to use them due to the rain.
There was a nice sitting area, a large firepit, a recreation room, and a creek to enjoy. They also had a laundry room if you needed it.
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| The Creek in the Campground photo by Heather |
When we walked out of our camper, we were greeted with a view of a beautiful mountain that appeared to be fiery due to all the yellow, orange, and red tones of the leaves. Although, my camera didn't catch all the beautiful colors it is still amazing to see.
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| Mountain by the Campground photo by Heather |
As for the food, we had leftovers to bring home. We stuck to the goal of not eating out.
It was great to be able to get up each morning and not have to make breakfast. I was so glad I had prepared this ahead of time. This helped us to get out the door sooner.
At lunch time, we were usually out and about. So, we mainly munched on the snacks I brought. The snacks were actually quite filling. I had no complaints.
We didn't set a time to be back and have supper. We just headed back when it was getting dark, or when we all felt hungry.
The best things about preparing food for this trip is that no one had to wait on me to cook, and I was not standing at the sink washing a lot of dishes. By preparing ahead of time, I was able to spend more time with my family.
The weather forecast was correct. It did rain while we were there, but it did not hinder our trip at all. Fortunately, It seemed to only rain while we were riding and were inside the camper at night.
While we hiked, there was a couple times it got a little misty and made us damp, but it wasn't bad at all.
It did make some of the trails slippery and muddy, so I was glad we packed boots.
Having a plan for our activities kept us from wasting time by standing around and trying to figure out what we wanted to do and see. Since I had made this plan, we were able to enjoy a lot more.
Even though we had an agenda, we took a detour if something caught our eye and we wanted to check it out.
One detour that was time well spent, was the moment we spotted a black bear. We pulled to the side of the road and observed the bear a few minutes. It was amazing to see a bear in the wild. It was eating acorns underneath a tree. This was exciting for us.
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| Black Bear Smoky Mountains by Heather |
One thing I couldn't prepare for was the terrain of some trails.
Most of the trails we hiked were rather easy, but some were moderate.
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| Dry Falls by Heather |
By moderate I mean they would require a bit of focus and a little more endurance.
We hiked a trail that required focus on where you placed your feet at times. There were slick spots due to the rain. We hiked through rocks and tree roots. Going down was not so bad except for the occasional slip on wet roots, but coming up was more difficult. You were constantly climbing back up hill. It was worth the effort. The waterfall was beautiful!
Waterfall NC by Heather
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| Waterfall Great Smoky Mountains by Heather |
As we headed to the Wayah Bald Tower we made a pit stop at the Wilson Lick Ranger Station.
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| Wilson Lick Ranger Station by Heather |
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| Outhouse at Ranger Station by Heather |
The trails to the Wilson Lick Ranger Station and to the Wayah Bald Tower were easy.
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Wayah Bald Tower photo by Heather
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Souvenir shopping went ok. We saw interesting things as we drove through town and visited the stores. Unfortunately, places closed earlier than we had anticipated and we didn't have much time to shop. However, we did find some treasures to bring home.
Camping with our dogs did not start out as normal. One thing we didn't plan, was how long distance trips can effect a dog's digestive system. One of our dogs didn't feel too well when we arrived at our destination. Although we didn't prepare for this, we knew what we needed, canned pumpkin. There was a little store just a hop, skip, and a jump up the road where we were able to purchase the canned pumpkin.
All it took was one tablespoon and she was feeling herself again.
What I learned this trip...don't take a long trip with your fur babies without canned pumpkin.
We didn't take our dogs on any of the hiking trails with us. One reason, we were not sure of all the stops we would make along the way. We saw other people hiking with their dogs and they seem to love it.
We did let our dogs walk around the campground and explore.
As for the tools my Hubby brought with us, they came in handy. I was so thankful he thought to bring them. We actually had a little break down while we were out exploring. Fortunately, we were able to make it back to the campground.
He called the local parts store, and they delivered just what he needed to make the repair. They were very friendly. It was not long and we were back out exploring.
We saw many waterfalls, lookouts, and more on our outings. There just isn't enough space for me to share it all.
This turned out to be one of the best camping trips we have been on.
We didn't get to make Smores this trip due to the rain, but we saw so many incredible waterfalls and sites to make up for it.
We all left there feeling refreshed and amazed at God's creation.
We are excited to plan our next trip. If you are ever in the Franklin, North Carolina area, it is definitely worth the time to stop and explore.
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