Camping Trip Part II

I don't think anybody slept well (except possibly Will) on Tuesday night.  The air mattress John and I were using had a leak, so we ended up sleeping on the ground.  At one point after we'd gone to bed, an owl called while *really* close to our tent.  That was pretty cool, but it did wake me up.  Then after I'd gone back to sleep, some people decided to talk in very loud voices while walking down the road around 1:00 am (I think).  And then it started raining at some point after that.

I love the sound of rain as it hits grass or leaves.  When it hits the rainfly of a tent, it just seems pretty loud.  I dozed on and off for the rest of the night. And then towards morning, John and I started feeling some drops.

The tent didn't leak a whole lot; just enough to be annoying.  Water had pooled at the corners of the rainfly.  When it got light enough to see, I went out and straightened out the fabric so the water would run off.  I continued to do that every once in a while while everyone else stayed in bed and tried to sleep some more.

The rain was kind of intermittent and it was pretty much just sprinkling when it was coming down.

After everyone was up and dressed,  we went to explore some more of Elkmont before heading out of the park to go to the Gatlinburg aquarium.

This section had a lot more cabins and they were all close together.  We were marvelling at how little space there was between the houses.  I guess when I think "vacation cabin"  I visualize more solitude than city neighborhood living.

Of the 74 cottages and outbuildings in Elkmont (I think the Wonderland Hotel collapsed in 2005), the National Park Service and Friends of the Smokies plan to restore 19 of them (as funds are available) and open them to the public.  17 of the buildings are in the Appalachian Club's "Daisy Town" section, which is where we were on this morning.

Appalachian Clubhouse, which has been restored and is available to rent for day use.

When we were on the porch of the Clubhouse, we turned around and saw a huge black bear crossing the road between some of the cabins.  I think we would all have been very surprised if he had appeared in that spot about 10 minutes earlier.  Although we (i.e., the kids) were making so much noise he may have just waited on us to leave.

We spent the rest of the day in Gatlinburg visiting the aquarium; it was supposed to rain on and off all day so we decided not to hike.

(Again, I took too many photos so I'll post those later.)

When we got back to the campsite it was raining.  John drained the collected water off the rainfly again and we decided to pack up and head home instead of spending another night.  Natalie wasn't feeling well and some of the pillows and sleeping bags were wet.

There is still one hike that I really wanted to do while we were there, so I guess we'll have to go back.  Elkmont is a really nice campground and we had a great site.

View on the way home