Grotto Falls

One of the biggest perks to living in Knoxville is its proximity to the Smokey Mountains! We made a trip up in January, but by the time the weather got warmer -- which did not really happen until late March -- we were so busy and only had a little time left to enjoy the mountains. So we made a point one weekend to drive up and do one of the easier trails. We picked a two mile trail to a waterfall. Once we got there, though, we realized the access road to that particular trail head was blocked off. We decided to do it anyway, which added about four miles to the original trail, since we would start on another path and meet up with the one we wanted after a bit.

On the way up, I thought about giving up. It was steep and it was already later in the day by the time we got started. But it was so beautiful so we kept going. Paul did great and walked a lot of the way, although Michael carried him quite a bit too.

This was near the beginning of our hike. We started on the Trillium Trail near the Rainbow Falls trail head, eventually meeting up with and taking the trail to Grotto Falls.

I thought this was neat -- this tree grew around this big rock.

Paul and I both had our own walking sticks.

Grotto Falls at last! To get to this vantage point, we all had to walk behind the falls itself. It was pretty cool!

Behind the falls! Paul was kind of scared to go back in there.

Luckily, we were able to walk on the road most of the way back, which seriously cut our hiking time by quite a bit. At this point we were all exhausted and so relieved to find our car again after several hours in the woods. It was a wonderful day and it definitely satisfied our desire to go to the Smokies, at least for a while.