Cades Cove

We've been wanting to take the auto tour through Cades Cove and Memorial Day weekend seemed like a good time for that so off we went. The weather was perfect. Even though the temperature hit record lows for May the night before, it warmed up nicely and we had great walking weather. Yes, I did say auto tour, but there's a lot of stopping and walking. 

Our first stop was a cute little cabin. I was astounded to hear that the owners raised 7 children here! They must have slept on the porch because the loft was tiny. 

I was particularly excited to see all the deer that were hanging out around this cabin. They didn't seem to mind having me right beside them. 

We also stopped at several churches.  The first was the Primitive Baptist Church, founded in 1827.

We also saw a Missionary Baptist Church and a Methodist Church. I'm not sure where the Presbyterians were.  

One of the churches still had an old piano, but it hadn't been tuned in a long time. I would hate to try to sing with that!  it was also interesting to read some of the messages that visitors had left in the Bibles in the pulpits. (Religious version of graffiti?).

 It was fascinating to walk through the cemeteries and see all of the graves. We saw one grave of a soldier who died in the Civil War. It seemed only fitting that we pay our respects on a Memorial Day weekend. 

It was getting to be lunchtime so we drove on over to the Abrams Falls Trailhead and had ourselves a little picnic.

After lunch we were ready for a hike so off we went in search of Abrams Falls. This was a rather challenging trail that went up and down and then up and down some more for 2 1/2 long miles. It was very rocky and we had to play close attention to where we walked. You don't want to attempt this trail without good hiking boots and a sturdy walking stick. All the way in I kept thinking, "This is gonna be rough on the way back!" It was, but the scenery was beautiful and the falls were awesome and it was so worth it!

By the time we got back to the car we decided to save the rest of Cades Cove for another day. We headed home and hit the hot tub to soak our weary bones. All in all it was a perfect day.