Ryan and Ellen

Dear friends and family,

The Lord has done wonderful things for us this year and we are filled with joy!

Spring 2011 held a great semester for Ryan at school. He is in Accounting full time and should graduate next December (2012) so we are counting down the days now! His class schedule last year brought a full schedule as he took classes through the summer as well as both semesters!

May 2011 we went on a lovely trip to the Ozark National Scenic Riverways and had a blast together. This was one of our most fun camping trips yet. We canoed, toured a cave, hiked, and just loved spending time together. We also found that 3 nights in a tent was just perfect for us as a couple – not too long to be sore from sleeping on the ground but long enough to make it well worth our while to set everything up! Furthermore, we made the decision that we can buy no more camping equipment, no matter how cool, until we get a bigger car! May is also when I passed my exam to become a Certified Diabetes Educator.

July of this year brought mixed emotions as my job as a diabetes educator at IQH came to a close. Our grant of 22 months ended and for a little over a month we sought the Lord over what to do next. With few “classic” dietitian jobs available in the area, we began to look at options different from what I have previously done and the Lord led me to a wonderful company located in Charleston, MS called The Diabetic Shoppe. We sell strips, shoes, cPAP machines, insulin pumps, etc – and now I am the Diabetic Education Coordinator, creating a new diabetes education program for Arkansas, Mississippi, and beyond. I absolutely love my job and love the fact that I can work from home, even though I travel a good bit. Ryan and I are so spoiled with us both being home a good portion of many days together! We are so thankful for our school/work situation right now.

The fall brought another semester with Ryan both being admitted to the University Honors Program and receiving his first academic scholarship – great honors and privileges for us – and the completion of his time as a junior at MSU. The fall held lots of travel for me as I traveled to meet the sales reps for my company all over the states of Mississippi, Arkansas, and even some into Tennessee. I love my job and have found the joys of traveling, such as hilton honors points {5 free nights already} and trying cool cuisines in other towns!

December was a joyous time! We completed Ryan’s toughest semester yet {now, he’s officially a senior!}, I completed the increased amount of traveling I was doing, and we had the opportunity to visit the most magical place on earth, Disney World! Ryan had never been before and I had been but it’s been a few years. We had a blast! We agreed it is the best vacation we have ever had! I’m posting pictures on facebook, so be sure to check those out. December also brought the Music City Bowl {we got to go!} on my birthday which was a wonderful gift! Ryan also spent December creating his new website – www.maroonworks.com!

In other news, we love hanging out with our friends from church and are so thankful for our relationships at Grace Covenant Baptist Church – God has truly blessed us there. January 2012, we have a niece coming on the Wallace side and February 2012 my sister is having a baby boy so you can imagine our lives have been filled with the joys of all that new babies bring! Graduation for Ryan is expected December 15, 2012 and who knows where the Lord will take us after that!

Thanks for being special friends to us and I pray you have a wonderful 2012! Please stay in touch… our home is always open…

Love,

Ellen & Ryan Wallace

Hi baby shower attendees!

I wanted to post some info about the Diaper Shower to hopefully make your gift grabbing a little simpler!

For our Diaper Shower, Amanda has registered at:

www.amazon.com

www.walmart.com

www.babiesrus.com

She is interested in doing cloth diapers – I’m sure she’d appreciate both cloth or plastic varieties and all the accessories that go with diapering!

Alphabet Letters!

Also, in your invitation, you got a card indicating a letter of the alphabet that has been assigned to you to get ready for the nursery. Our goal is to get all 26 letters of the alphabet for Jonathan’s wall. This might be confusing if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about so below are some ideas. You can go as simple or elaborate as you’d like – you can purchase your letter pre-made or create your own! Here are the “guidelines”:

- Letters should be somewhere between 8-16 inches in height

- Amanda is going with neutral colors for bedding so be creative in your color choices!

- Letters should optimally have only 1-2 colors each

Here are a few pictures that show examples of what we are trying to achieve:

Places to find pre-made letters:

www.hobbylobby.com and in-store

www.amazon.com

www.babiesrus.com and in-store

Small and large stores – you can find letters or letter “substitutes” (i.e. substituting a cross for a “T”, substituting a round object for an “O”, or substituting a horseshoe for a “U”) at most any store that sells gifts and gift merchandise.

Ideas for making your own letters:

Here are some ideas in picture and the web links for how to make these creations. Be creative – letters can be framed, painted, wood, ceramic, metal… find your letter within something… take a photo to represent your letter. Be creative!

Also, just google “Wall Letters” and your letter and click on images for TONS of cute ideas!

Consider doing something as creative as you want. Purchasing a pre-made letter or creating your own will get our alphabet all finished up. Bring your letter unwrapped and we will put them all on display during the shower. If you are not going to be able to make it to the shower, just give me a call and we’ll find a way to get your letter here for our display. If you feel doing the letter is just too much for you right now, please let me know as soon as possible and I’ll make sure someone else takes care of it.

Most of all, have fun and I look forward to seeing you on December 10th!

click pic for instructions

click pic for instructions

To make these cute letters, grab a block and paint in desired background color. Simply take a "wall letters" sticker with your letter and apply to block!

click pic for instructions

click the pic for numerous cute letter ideas!

Our last day began around 7am as we made some coffee and began to pack up. We packed the stuff up and were able to get the tents and tarp dry so it’s all ready to pack back up when we get home. We are sad leaving but so happy to have an awesome trip back to Mississippi! As I write this journal we are on the road, back in Mississippi. We have traveled through Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee today and have had a great trip. Subway for lunch and snacks in the car have topped this trip off greatly!

On the way home, we stopped at Mammoth Springs, Arkansas State Park. Gorgeous park, picnic areas, clean restrooms, visitor’s center – definitely worth a stop if you are in the area!

We had a blast and truly got to see this whole area of the Ozarks. The rangers at this national park were some of the nicest ones we’ve ever met. They provided lots of great information at every turn and were helpful in getting us where we needed to be at each turn.

Things forgotten this trip:

Not much, actually. I would have brought an extra long sleeve for both of us, and a jacket for Ryan, but really we only needed those the first day anyway because it warmed up a lot after Saturday.

Things learned this trip:

Food: Absolute win with using ziplock bags to mix the salads up and taking all disposable stuff. Our only meal requiring messing up a pot was the very last night – so, we rinsed out, tied up in a bag, and are taking it home to wash! No wash tubs!

Bottled Water: We just bought plenty of bottled water (I couponed!) so that we never had to FIND water and then hope it was clear and tasted good. We ran through 2 full 24-packs in our 3 nights but it was definitely worth it to never feel like we rationed water out.

Things we now want:

-       A GPS Unit! We borrowed my dad’s for this trip – definitely worth taking – allows us to jump off the path or change our stops along the way!

-       Camelback Water Containers – we love hiking and I think it’s time for some camelbacks to carry our water!

We began our day around 7am with coffee and oatmeal. We donned our hiking gear and headed off. Our first stop was at Rocky Falls, a gorgeous waterfall requiring only a short walk. We got some great pics and video at Rocky Falls and even were able to climb around the falls a little. There were some beautiful flowers to take pictures of and the falls itself was a great outing – would highly recommend!

After seeing Rocky Falls we decided to hike to the Klepzig Mill. The Klepzig Mill is a 3.1 mile hike from Rocky Falls or you can drive about a mile down the road and only hike 1.6 miles to the mill. Since we had a good bit of stuff to do we decided to take this route and only hike 3.2 miles round trip. The hike was moderate – some muddy spots but no problem with our hiking boots on. Great scenic route with some good pics. The mill and an old building were really cool as was the river there at the mill. We ate cheese, crackers, and summer sausage for lunch by the river and enjoyed walking around. Several people were getting in the water at the river but most of these parked ½ mile from the mill by going a different route – we needed to keep our feet dry for our 1.6 mile hike back to the car!

We hiked back out to the road and crossed a low water road area to get back to our car. We then drove to Blue Springs – but, there is a distinction I will make in the Blue Springs in case you are reading this and want to go! Blue Springs on the Current River is really cool – it is the tallest spring in Missouri and is actually deeper than the Statue of Liberty is tall! We went to this spring and it was super cool! We, however, didn’t notice the difference on the map and went to the Blue Spring on the Jacks Fork River first – this is a cool spring but just not quite so deep and spectacular! You aren’t supposed to wade in any of the springs but especially not one 300-something feet deep! There were people walking across the first Blue Spring we went to and we realized quickly we were not at the right one! But, it was pretty nevertheless!

After leaving the first Blue Spring, we went to Alley Springs. Alley Springs has a beautiful 1.5 mile hike around the spring that leads to an overlook. We got awesome pictures at the overlook and thoroughly enjoyed that short trail. The first quarter mile is definitely the most treacherous – UPHILL! But after that the trail evens out and is beautiful! The overlook is awesome and provided a great video and photos. We toured the mill, visited the small school there, and then visited the store at the Alley Spring. All provided a great trip.

We went to the Blue Spring on the Current River next. This spring was gorgeous – a ½ mile hike was definitely worth seeing the gorgeous deep spring. The spring was very clear and blue but they say it’s even clearer most of the time when there has not been so much rain. We hiked around to the left side up to an overlook to get even more great pics.

After Blue Spring on the Current River we were exhausted and headed back to camp! We got back in time to put our feet in the river – COLD – for just a couple minutes and then we found – THE SHOWERS!!! – and totally enjoyed a nice warm shower at the campground!

For supper tonight, we had a boxed couscous and chicken meal, some sautéed vegetables (from a bag of frozen veggies), and some Artisan bread. We then played the Worst Case Scenario game for some great camping laughs!

Bedtime was again around 9pm – we were sad, thinking of heading home tomorrow!

Saturday morning started early. We got up about 7:15 to get ready for our canoe trip. After a light breakfast of oatmeal and coffee we were picked up by the canoe place about 8:15am. We were going to canoe from Pulltite campground to our Round Spring Campground but the river level was pretty high so we swapped our trip to canoe from Akers campground to Pulltite. I believe our trip was about 8-10 miles of canoeing.

This was Ryan’s first time ever to canoe. I canoed when I was about 5-6 years old but I don’t remember much so it felt like a first to me! We did really well, actually! And took before and after pics to prove that we stayed dry and did not flip the canoe! The river level was very high because of all the recent rain and flooding so it was a pretty choppy and deep ride. We made the trip in about 2.5 hours, coming in 1.5-2 hours faster than they predicted because of the higher water levels. When they dropped us off, we asked the canoe people for some basics of canoeing – he looked at us and said, “wow – this will be interesting! You’ve never canoed?” We got some quick tips – Ryan was in the back and I was in the front. I paddled on one side the whole time and he “corrected” our direction, whichever way we needed to go.

PERSONAL NOTE: Everyone kinda joked and laughed about communication and canoeing – the ranger said that he felt like he gave marriage counseling about communication every time he taught a couple how to canoe. In a boat when things get a little hairy (like when we were turned around completely backwards!) is a quick and easy way to freak out and say things you regret. Also, without working together and communicating you will totally flip out! This principle reminded me of the picture of Christ and the church. In a marriage, the wife is the picture of the church and the husband is the picture of Christ. I could totally see a correlation… Ryan, in the back, could see the bigger picture. He could also see what I was doing. I, in the front, often wanted to compensate or paddle harder or faster – every time I did this, Ryan was forced to compensate for me, turn us back around, and keep us on path. 10 seconds of me asserting my way and just doing what I wanted would cause us to capsize. In the same way, Christ is the captain of my ship. If I follow His commands and do what He says our boat floats right along through torrential downpours and terrible waves. He is so patient with me when I over-paddle, paddle on the wrong side, or rock the boat. And He is so patient with me when I flip myself around and assert my way, only to capsize the boat – He can walk on the water and lead me to safety.

OK, back to our trip… We got back to the canoe place around 11:20am and they took us right back to our campsite. We grabbed some lunch (yogurt and cinnamon rolls) and then went for a short hike. We hiked about ½ mile around Round Spring. It was a beautiful spring with a gorgeous picnic area. We got some great pictures, too!

About 1pm we got in line to tour the Round Spring Cave. Thankfully, we got in line early because the tour filled up very fast. For $5, we toured a really cool cave. Our tour was lantern led which added a very interesting alternative trip to the cave tours we have done before. Having a lantern led tour meant that there was no natural light in the cave – I remember at one of the caves we toured before there was moss and stuff growing in the cave from the lighting provided by the electricity in the cave and it was very interesting to see a preserved cave instead. The tour lasted about 2 hours and was definitely worth the time and money. Round Spring Cave is actually the only cave in the Ozarks that is open right now. There is something called White Nose Syndrome that is killing a lot of bats in caves around the nation and it has been found in the Ozarks. So, for educational purposes, they keep this cave open but all others are closed for now. We had to wear different clothes and shoes from the ones we wore when we toured a cave last year because the syndrome is spread from explorer’s clothes!

Our cave tour ended around 4pm and we still were up for adventure! We drove up to the Welch Hospital trail. We hiked about a mile total to walk to see an old hospital. This abandoned hospital was once used by a physician who thought that setting up a hospital right by the spring would cure tuberculosis. When his theory didn’t work I guess the hospital was shut down. Still a really cool hike and pictures…. They say not to wade in the stream to get to the hospital, though, because there could be old hospital equipment in the water! Ouch!

After leaving Welch Hospital, we went to Devil’s Well, a sinkhole in a cave. You can drive within 1/10 mile of the sinkhole and it was very interesting to walk and look in. The actual underground lake is huge – but I would recommend taking a flashlight to look inside the Devil’s well because the actual lake is locked off. We saw some of it but it was getting dark so it was hard to see much further in the sinkhole. There is a 4.6 mile trail from the Devil’s Well to Cave Spring and back that many people recommended as a beautiful trail. We didn’t do this one because we didn’t have enough days to do this hike but it was highly recommended for wildflowers and beautiful scenery.

We headed back home and enjoyed a grilled chicken salad (with pre-grilled chicken) for supper as well as some Artisan Bread and s’mores.

After supper, we enjoyed a ranger led “Campfire Program” at the amphitheater. The ranger talked about trails – information we will use tomorrow for our hiking experiences!

We went to bed around 9:30pm and were very tired after a great day!

We loaded up our car last night so that the only thing we would have to do this morning was throw on our clothes, pack the ice chests, and jump in the car. We got off around 8:30am this morning, about 30 minutes later than we wanted thanks to me needing to go back to get the camera charger which actually happened to already be packed in the car! We made our way north and went through Corinth on the way. Our pastor’s mother passed away yesterday and we wanted to stop by the visitation on our way to the Ozarks.

We stopped in Corinth and then continued north toward the Ozarks. We stopped for Subway in a small Tennessee town and then continued on.

On the way, we decided to make some super silly videos about random things using my new camera. It was a bunch of fun and passed some time by as well!

We stopped at the park headquarters in Van Buren at about 4pm on our way in. The rangers there were super helpful and we picked up some maps and got some information for the trip. We talked to the rangers about hiking options and they gave us some recommendations which I’ll talk about in my subsequent journal entries.

We got back on the road about 4:20pm and headed to our campground. We got to our campground, Round Spring Campground, around 5:15pm. We checked in at the ranger station and then headed to Carr’s Canoe Rental just about ¼ mile down the road to pre-check in for our canoe trip tomorrow. After checking in and paying the fee we headed back to the campground and set up our tent for sleeping and our tent over the table for eating.

For supper, we had taco salad. I would HIGHLY recommend repeating what we did for our meals this trip – I made things SUPER easy for myself! I made the taco salad (the kind with beef, beans, catalina dressing, etc) in a gallon size ziplock bag and then we used disposable plates, napkins, forks, etc. Super simple and everything could just be thrown away with no dishes!

After supper, we walked around the campsite a little and then headed to bed around 9pm.

Dear Friends & Family,

I cannot believe our second Christmas is here! One and a half years of marriage has literally flown by and here we are, looking at 2011! I pray this letter finds you in the midst of a wonderful Christmas season, rejoicing in the birth of Christ our Savior!

2010 has been filled with excitement for the two of us…

Grenada Lake

In March, we went on our first camping trip! We got a new tent for Christmas and packed up our Jeep for Grenada Lake. Though we froze, it was still wonderfully fun!

In May, we camped again – this time for 7 nights in the Smoky Mountains. Our Smoky Mountain trip was a blast, complete with a strenuous hike to Chimney Tops, a trip to Dolly Wood, visits to Cades Cove, and many more adventures.

Smoky Mountains - Chimney Tops Hike

This summer brought our first anniversary! A weekend trip to Tupelo to stay in the same place we did after our wedding.

Towards the end of the summer, Ryan and I were blessed to take a weekend trip to Orange Beach (the oil spill provided great rates!). The wonderful relaxing time on the beach was awesome and we even got to swim a little, too!

Our First Anniversary

This summer also brought a sad time for us. Within a few weeks time-span we both lost our grandfathers on our mother’s sides – a reminder that our days are numbered.

The fall brought school, MSU football, new cowbells, the Quench Bible Project (1000 Bibles for MSU!), and a camping trip to Tishomingo State Park (where we went for our honeymoon – but this time we tent camped!).

Winter is upon us and with it comes a move! MSU is closing down married student housing so we will be moving to Academy Village at the end of this month. We are excited about moving to our new home and at the same time sad to see our little apartment go. It is hard to believe that no one else will live in our little place!

Another fun excursion winter brought was a trip to Natchez, MS. While I was doing a radio interview there, Ryan was able to go with me and we got to stay at Dunlieth Plantation. Dinners out and a night in the main house in an antebellum room were such an exciting treat the week of Christmas!

The end of this year also marks an exciting time for us – Ryan and I will both hit a quarter century in the next 2 months!

As for what we’re up to now…

Tishomingo State Park Camping

Ryan is a “super sophomore” (1 class short of being a Junior!) at Mississippi State. This past August, he decided to change his major to Accounting and has done great. He really enjoys his class material and feels this is a great fit for him. I have been so excited to see him enjoying his classes and learning so much. He is also keeping up his web design business on the side – www.maroonworks.com – He has a good number of web design clients and does a great job keeping web work going.

Go Dawgs!

As for me (Ellen), I’m doing diabetes education in the community through a Medicare grant. I love to teach about nutrition and diabetes and have enjoyed a few TV and Radio interviews along the way as well. Cooking with Ellen is still going strong with a few booths, my website – www.cookingwithellen.com – and a healthy cooking e-newsletter.

You can visit our gallery to find a scrapbook album I’ve made. I used a computer program to make the pages and have printed them off for us to enjoy. In this letter, you’ll notice the pics of Carl & Ellie from Up. This movie is one of Ryan’s Christmas gifts this year – Carl & Ellie remind us of ourselves so much. Life is an adventure – you must see every day as such!

God has blessed us so much in 2010.

I cannot believe how wonderful He has been to us. So often I fail to praise Him enough for His grace and mercy. “All Your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all Your saints shall bless You!” –Psalm 145:10

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Love,

Ryan & Ellen Wallace

Tuesday provided another beautiful day with little rain and much adventure!

We began the day with breakfast (and coffee!) and then headed to Cades Cove, about a 30 minute drive from our campground. Cades Cove is a beautiful place with much history. Dozens of people used to live in the Cove and their houses, barns, and history still lives there. We began the tour driving through the beautiful country, seeing and visiting waterfalls, wildlife, homes in the cove, churches, and beautiful woods and mountains.

We stopped at Abrams Falls, a lovely 5 mile walk to a beautiful waterfall. There were a good number of people on the trail and at the falls. Abrams falls is a moderate hike and appears to be very popular. Lunch at the falls provided a wonderful spot for dining!

After hiking the falls we returned to our car and toured the walking tour around the small village there. Again, our auto touring guide was of much assistance!

We finished Cades Cove a little earlier than expected so decided to visit Tuckaleechee Caverns. These caverns were recommended by my Aunt Marianne and they were a highlight of our trip. How amazing for an underground cave to be so large!

We were able to tour about 1/2 mile of the cave but the tour guide said that this cave was around 4 miles in length – much of the cave is just too narrow for groups to go through for touring.

After finishing the caverns we visited the store there where I bought a lovely cookbook before returning to our tent.

For dinner this night I had the bright idea of cooking frozen pizzas over the campstove. This was sorta a take-off of a friend’s suggestion to cook pizza, only her idea was better. This idea did not work well and ended with not much dinner for us. You must follow, as she said, cooking the crust first, then adding toppings – don’t try the frozen pizza on a camp stove idea!

Tips from Tuesday:

- Head to Cades Cove EARLY! Don’t wait around because it gets very busy the later you go.

- Hike Abrams Falls and other very popular trails either early or late – there were alot of people on the trail when we went.

- If you eat lunch at a waterfall, don’t eat right in front of it where people are taking pictures – we had trouble getting photos of the waterfall because a group was eating lunch right in front of it.

- Tuckaleechee Caverns was a great find – we decided to plan it in for a rainy day or for a day when, like with Cades Cove, we finished up a little early and wanted something to do the rest of the day.

- If you want campstove pizza, try taking your crust, tomato sauce, and cheese separately – not in a frozen pizza!

Monday – the weekend is over and our week begins! We decided to visit Newfound Gap Road on Monday. We began our tour with our “Auto Tour” guide in hand, a very informative guide to each stop on the Newfound Gap Road. We did not stop at all of the lookouts, trails, and sights but we definitely got to see many of them.

We headed down Newfound Gap Road and stopped first at the Chimney Tops Picnic Area. This is a beautiful place to enjoy a picnic with a lovely river view right next to the picnic tables. We utilized the restroom facilities, got some water, and then headed another couple of miles down Newfound Gap Road to our ultimate adventure – Chimney Tops!

As we traveled down the road we began to see look-out signs for Chimney Tops – can you see the “forked antlers” (as the Indians used to call them)? That would be the tips of those two peaks in the photo to the right. That’s where we hiked! To the top! These lookout places began to psych us out but there was no going back for us!

When we got to the Chimney Tops trailhead we found a good number of cars there but a trip down the trail made us realize that many of those parked were not hiking to the Chimney Tops but rather visiting the river there where otters play with a lovely swimming area. We passed these and enjoyed our first mile into the trip, noticing a definite rise in elevation but not too strenuous a trip. 0.9 miles into the 2 mile journey to the top we saw a sign where you could take a separate trail or take a right to continue to the Chimneys. We took the right and began to wonder if the information that we received of this being a “moderate” trail was in fact correct! On the way back down the mountain our question was confirmed that the Chimney Tops trail is a STRENUOUS 4 mile trail!

About 1/2 of the last mile was crazy as the trail was primarily rocks we were trudging through. We began to wear out but pressed on!

At the top, we forgot our sorrows as the view was definitely worth our hike! Breathtaking views of mountains could be seen as we were literally eye level with the tops of the mountains! The view was absolutely breath-taking! To get to the absolute top you must literally climb a rock face mountain side so, after I got stung by a bee and we climbed around some, we decided we had climbed high enough for the time being. We took tons of photos and then ate lunch at the top before heading back down, an equally challenging hike as we hiked back down the rocky mountain.

After finishing Chimney Tops we continued driving down Newfound Gap Road. We stopped to take pictures at Morton’s Overlook but then it began to rain. When we got to Newfound Gap it was pouring so we continued driving. We stopped again at Mingus Mill, another interesting find. Mingus Mill is an old gristmill that is still in operation. We were able to watch corn being ground.

We continued to the end of the road by stopping at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center. We went through the center and also toured the working farm there at the center.

We drove back across Newfound Gap Road to get home. It was raining once again at Newfound Gap itself so we decided to go back later for pics – but I did get this awesome shot of a bride and groom taking photos! Too cool! Sorry for them it was raining, though!

We headed back to our tent to end our day with a delicious meal of Red Beans and Rice!

Tips from Monday:
- If you’re up to it, definitely hike Chimney Tops for great views!
- For hikes, carry at least 8 ounces of water per person per mile plus some extra as we nearly ran out on the trail.
- For auto touring, it’s worth it to purchase the little guides for interesting facts about your drive

Sunday – our first full day in the mountains! We slept in a little and then got up to a nice breakfast at our campsite. With this being our first meal to cook at the campsite it took a little longer to find things this go-around. Thankfully we had bought a french press coffee pot for our trip so there was no shortage to coffee even though we were out in the woods!

After getting ready we headed to the Sugarlands Visitor Center near Elkmont campground. This is a must-visit visitors center should you travel to the mountains.

All of the rangers we met our entire trip were super nice and helpful and we used this visit to the center to begin planning our week.

We checked out the store, noting several things we wanted to return and buy, and then chatted with a ranger who gave us directions and advice for our trip. This was super helpful as some of the attractions we had planned to see were either closed or very busy on the weekend, etc.

We left the visitor center and decided to visit the Little Greenbrier School just up the road from the visitor center and Metcalf Bottoms picnic area. The school and accompanying graveyard were very interesting places to visit – we drove up to the school but there is actually a 0.8 mile trail from Metcalf Bottoms that takes you right there as well (without going through the skinny gravel road up to the school). A 1.1 mile hike down the Little Greenbrier Trail from the school leads to the Walker Sisters’ Cabin, the oldest and largest cabin in the Smokies, as the ranger had told us. The cabin and school were really interesting visits and definitely something we would recommend. They were also not very busy at all for a weekend afternoon.

We ate lunch at the cabin and then walked back to our car. We drove from there to Cades Cove where we took Rich Mountain Road to Townsend, TN. This is definitely a site to see. From our online research, Rich Mountain Road is one of several minimally traveled “back” roads where many gorgeous photos are taken. The 8 mile one-way gravel road leads from Cades Cove to Townsend, TN. The road provides some beautiful photographic spots and was truly enjoyable. – SEE pics below for Pics of Rich Mountain Road!

We got to Townsend and suddenly had a huge desire for COFFEE!!! Not just coffee but a frappuccino – I know, frappuccinos aren’t really classified under “roughing it” but we just really wanted one so we drove through Townsend to find the 2 little coffee shops we saw there both closed. We then took a loop around to Pigeon Forge where we found a McDonalds to hit up for a frappe!

We drove home through Gatlinburg and ended at our tent where we had Taco Soup for supper.

Tips from Sunday:

- Find less-traveled things to do for the weekends. Just the little bit we did at Cades Cove was very crowded and doing the entire loop was much more enjoyable during the week. Many people do weekend get-aways so to really see stuff go during the week. Rich Mountain Road provided the perfect Sunday activity, as did the school and cabin.

- Visit a center with park rangers to guide your visit. We got tons of helpful information from them and it was definitely worth talking our plans through with them.

- Before going, check out the National Park Services website and sorta plan your week out. There is SO MUCH to do that if you don’t prioritize it won’t get done!

Rich Mountain Road Scenes:

Views from Rich Mountain Road

Mountain Views

Smoky Mountain View - Rich Mtn Road

Rich Mountain Road

Rich Mountain Road

Rich Mountain Road