thursday

this is the view of the chimney top from the road

this was our first full day at the smoky mountains. we got up and out of the campground at about 11. we spent a little time at the welcome center and then headed up the new found gap road to find our trailhead. on the way up we decided to climb the chimney tops. it was a really cool trail that crossed 3 rivers. at the top, as you can see, there was a rock face that you had to climb to get the view from the peak. tessa and i took turns making the trek and the other stayed with the kids at the bottom of the rock face. on the way back down then we spent time playing in the river and jumping from some of the rocks.