Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, TN: Chimney Tops

We had just amazing weather in Tennessee when we were there for Christmas. One day we took advantage of it, piled all 5 of us and a picnic lunch into the car, and drove into the mountains. 

There was no real destination in mind; we just took the Gatlinburg bypass and kept going up until we found somewhere that looked interesting. We wound up at Chimney Tops.

I doubt we were going to hike this anyway (not everyone had hiking shoes on and we were not particularly prepared for a 2 mile hike, ha!), but even if we had wanted to, the trail to the top is actually closed in winter. And for good reason:

Maybe we will go back in the summer and try it, but I am a scaredycat when climbing things soo we'll see. (However, I have noticed an increase for my capacity of climbing things when wearing my new hiking shoes, so all may not be lost.)

We were able to walk a little bit of the beginning of the trail, which afforded us some really beautiful views of a little creek.

We didn't get very far but what we did see was so pretty! There were plenty of other people on the trails, too. 

 

After we left the trail, we went back down the mountain and pulled into an overlook area for our picnic. From this spot we could see the top of Chimney Tops. That peak is where the crazy climb is. 

The mountain looks like it has little chimneys dotting it, as random smoke rises up. Cool, right?

Did you go on any fun adventures over the holidays? We literally didn't leave the house Saturday through Tuesday, but now that the temperature is above 0 degrees maybe we will be able to go on some new adventures soon :)