I was incredibly disappointed at this. Anyway the Smokies were surprisingly easy hiking. The path is so well-defined (namely I think because it's so old) and you're already so high up on the ridge that there isn't a whole lot of elevation change. 
We also had completely clear weather which was amazing. The whole forest floor was covered in wildflowers. The ones in the picture were called "spring beauties." Basically hiked on through to Clingman's Dome today. We met Hatchet a few miles before reaching Clingman's. He was stopped trying to catch a wild turkey on video.Clingman's dome is kind of an odd place. It's the highest point on the AT but they built this weird 70's-style overlook tower thinger on top and you can practically drive up the mountain. There were a lot of babies up there. It was bring your baby to clingman's dome day.
We had decided earlier we were going to go into Gatlinburg so we hiked down to the parking lot to try to catch a ride. It definitely took a few minutes. We tried to talk a Canadian couple into taking us but they said they weren't heading to Gatlinburg. Finally this nice guy from St. Louis on a roadtrip with his girlfriend and his buddy said we could catch a ride with him if we were interested in checking out Cherokee, NC and Mingo Falls first. Not a bad deal.So we started down mountain the back of this guy's pick up truck. That was a gorgeous drive. We finally get down into the valley and I accidentally dropped my camera into a hole in the bed of his truck. It must've bounced off something under there and off to the side of the road. When we told him at the gas station we stopped there it was super nice of him to drive us back to look for it. A couple miles later there it was on the side of the road - and not broken! I decided at that moment that odd lucky things like that just happen on the trail.
It was just that kind of place. We finally got to the waterfall when I realized I had actually been there when I was 12 on the middle school orchestra trip. Weird flashback. Nice waterfall.We had to drive up and over the Smokies again to get back to Gatlinburg. They dropped us off on the main drag and we walked to the motel we had heard about in our guidebook. Can't remember the name :( Got some beer, went to dinner at the grill on the corner. Had a super weird sketchy waiter who mentioned drugs, probation, hookers and strippers before even taking our drink order. He was either super sketchy or just making anything up. Either way it was entertaining. Then we had to figure out what the Gatlinburg nightlife situation is on a Sunday. Took a few tries but we finally found Puckers, which is where everybody that works in town goes after getting off their shift. Good time. Did "Dixieland Delight" on kareoke and made some friends. All fun and games until hatchet starts asking Green Lite repeatedly if he 'has his back." ALways a good sign. Managed to skip out before hatchet caused any real trouble. Those Gatlinburg nights.
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