North Carolina Vacation - Day 3 (Part 1)

For day three of our vacation, we decided to head to Tennessee to see Cade's Cove. The pass has been closed the day before, so I was excited when I found out it was open that morning. And even more excited when not too far out of Franklin, we saw snow! Not a lot, but still, snow.

I could kick myself for not getting a photo when we entered Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But we figured we'd have a chance later. More on that to come. But the drive was so pretty. The roads were really nice and there was a stream/river running along most of the way. It didn't take long before we found snow. This sidewalk was completely coated in ice.

Of course, once it thickened up a little, we had to stop and play for a minute. Morgan was sleeping.

As we slowly climbed higher, the snow started to thicken. There was some ice on the roads, but they had laid sand on the road to help with traction.

Of course the kids had to make snowballs.

Layla throwing a snowball at a tree.

After a bit of driving, the snow was getting pretty thick. There were people pulled off everywhere, having snowball fights and sledding. I regret not bringing a sled. Or getting more pictures. But we thought we'd have more time coming back across, and were in a hurry to get to Cade's Cove. This is my first snowball!

This photo does not do the view justice AT ALL. It was amazing.

This is Layla's version of a snowman!

Blake snatched my snowball!

This was such a gorgeous drive. Not near as scary as the trip by the waterfall, even though we were much higher. We crossed the Tennessee border up here, but at the time I didn't realize where it had happened. It was at Newfound Gap, near Clingman's Dome, which is the highest point in Tennessee. It was closed for the season or we would have went up. No pictures of course.

Here we were coming back down the mountains, heading towards Cade's Cove. Since there were so many pictures, I decided to split day three into two posts. Check back soon for part two!