We had a more leisurely start to the day knowing we had less than 2 hours drive to the great smoky mountains.

As we crossed into North Carolina we put on James Taylor’s Carolina in my mind to put us in the mood.

We stopped at the visitor centre at Bryson City, a quaint town on the edge of the Smokies. The lady there recommended a campground nearby and a hike with 3 waterfalls on it.

As it was Sunday afternoon it was very busy and we were lucky to get the last spot in the campground. It’s only $15 for the night with our discount card. It’s a nice spot only slightly ruined by our neighbours noisy generator.

We went for our walk, following the river, then up a steep hill to the Juney Whank waterfall. An Amish family we’re there all dressed in their Sunday best. They had travelled 700kms as their mother was having surgery in Atlanta. So they were doing a bit of sightseeing beforehand.

Lots of people were tubing down the river. I would loved to have given it a go, but the thought of carrying the tube up a steep incline didn’t really appeal. Plus it looked a bit scary. One guy was walking back down with his tube and an ice pack on his head.

We visited the two other waterfalls then I had a swim. The water was freezing having come straight off the blue ridge mountain, but I braved it and was glad I did. It was nice to cool off from the heat and humidity.

Back at camp we sat and listened to the noisy generator for a bit. After about an hour they came back to their camp and turned it off and it was such a relief.

Tomorrow we shall explore the smokies some more before picking up the blue ridge parkway and following it to Virginia. I feel like I’m in a John Denver song.

There are about 1500 bears in the great smoky mountains. That’s 2 bears per square mile. So we might get up early in the morning with the hope of seeing one.