TN Day 3 – Mother’s Day and More Bears – The Adventures of the Cajunlimeys

The first mission on Mother’s Day, as per Janet (with Bailey’s guidance) was breakfast at Gatlinburg’s Pancake Pantry. We had seen the long queue outside of it yesterday, so it was a 7am breakfast for us! However, the kids had to do the right thing first…

An early breakfast when the Pancake Pantry opened.

Great views with the food. Each dish comes with a side of 3 pancakes, so we each shared an omelette.

Next was our first hike of the day, which was a fairly leisurely 2.5 mile round trip stroll to Laurel Falls.

A tactic of shaming to encourage you to help the bears. “Do not allow bears to approach you” it says. It’s important to remember that one!

The Mountain Laurels were starting to bloom, so we timed this hike well.

Lots of rhododendron buds but no flowers yet.

The next stop was the trailhead for Grotto Falls. We found a parking spot but then realized it was about a mile from the trailhead. So we drove to the trailhead but there was no parking…. We might come back earlier another day. We kept driving along the Roaring Fork Driving Loop, to a place we could stop by some cabins.

No cabin photos but there was a cool river.

Next stop was The Place of a Thousand Drips, which was aptly named. We grabbed our picnic lunch after which Samuel went exploring and the others tried to follow. A large bear arrived to check us out, probably attracted by the smell of our lunch, so we quickly packed that away and tried our best to avoid the bear. We all took up appropriate roles. Samuel kept climbing up to a cave. Kylie got freaked out by a large bug. Bailey got really freaked out by the bear and hid behind her Mum. Jett grabbed a large stick to chase the bear. Janet strove to protect her herd. And I did my best to take photos of it all!