Tennessee Summer Vacation PART THREE // THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS // Day 2
Our second day in the Smokies we planned to spend at Dollywood. We also wanted to get to Splash Country early to take advantage of the much shorter lines. What we didn’t account for is the fact that you don’t wake up sweating in Tennessee like you do in Texas. The mornings, especially in the mountains are still pretty cool even in June. We braved the cold anyways and were one of the first 100 or so people to enter the gates of Dollywood Splash Country that morning.
*side note: I did not have my camera with me, so all of the photos taken on this day are with my iPhone.
We grabbed a locker and headed out to spend an awesome morning together. The best thing about Dollywood is how beautiful they have managed to keep the park. The slides are literally built into a mountain, and as you climb the stairs to the next attraction the views just get better and better.
There is also a fair amount of good people watching which was also great fun.
We ALL had so much fun and ended up spending nearly half the day there. The lines were extremely reasonable and the kids loved winding down in the Tidal Pool. If you are ever in the Pigeon Forge area I highly recommend a trip to Splash Country.
After the waterpark we headed back to the cabin to rinse off before having a late lunch at a family favorite; the Apple Barn.
You may remember The Apple Barn from some of my past trips to the Smokies like here. Someday I’ll have to dig up the photos from here when I was a kid with my grandparents. Needless to say we’ve been coming here for a while. The food is great and the people are even nicer.
This is a must have shot whenever we come here. Of course our kids didn’t make it easy…
This was the best we could get…. I’ll take it!
Of course we did some obligatory shopping in Pigeon Forge which resulted in Isla’s first Airbrush Tee which you’ll see later in this post.
We ended our day with a drive through Newfound Gap.
This road is the only road that goes completely through the Smokies, and is a good way to get a feeling for everything the park has to offer.
There’s that airbrush tee I was taking about…
Theres lots of places to park and stop along the way to take in some pretty amazing views.
Taking pictures has never been easy with this crew…
From this spot you can continue driving up to Clingman’s Dome, which at 6,643 feet is the highest point in the Smokies. We make the trip up there later in our stay, but decide that it’s time to call this very busy and eventful day a wrap and head back to our cabin for the night.