Trillium Trek

 Last week, we headed down to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a very quick wildflower photography trip. A photographer friend of Brent's had told him all about the trillium and other wildflowers that bloom in this area so we headed down to check them out. It was a little early for some of the flowers but others were blooming so beautifully already.

The picture below is Rebekah's first attempt drinking from a water fountain. She was so funny doing this. As 

you can see she would close her eyes when the water came on and she would lean forward and let the water hit her cheek and just giggle over and over. I am not sure she got any water actually in her mouth!

If you know our girls very well, they are definitely experiential learners. They don't just want to look at whatever it is, they want to be in the middle of it. Yes, the water was cold and yes, they still wanted to put their feet in it.

We began our hike on Friday around sunrise to make the most of the foggy and misty conditions. Yes, I know most people don't hike when it is cloudy, but it is the best conditions for taking pictures of wildflowers. So raincoats and all, off we went. There wasn't enough scenery for Rachel, apparently, on the first part of the hike so she decided to read and hike!

After we crossed these two bridges, we really began to see most of the wildflowers along the trail. There were literally thousands of the fringed phalecia. Those are the little tiny white flowers that are covering the ground in the pictures below.

Rachel has sat in the backpack while her Daddy has taken many, many pictures. Now Rebekah is taking her turn "assisting" with pictures.

Rebekah is also not as content to just sit the backpack, particularly if we are stopping to take pictures instead of continuing to hike. She actually wants to get out and walk on her own too!

Of course, we had to make some new friends along the trail too. Rachel really wanted to bring her snail with us but I had to convince her this was the best place for him to live.

We did make it all the way to the waterfall! I understand this is usually just a trickle of water part of the year. There was quite a bit of rain before we arrived and we were glad to be able to actually see the waterfall. The girls are clapping because we usually sing "If You Are Happy and you know it, Clap your Hands" to get them to look in a picture. So here we caught them mid-clap...

Here is one the things we came to see...Trillium! I just thought these ferns beginning to unfurl were pretty as well.
We were finished with our hike by around lunchtime, so we headed to the town of Gatlinburg to show the girls around a bit. We did ride the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg and the girls loved this. Actually, I did too. Brent had ridden with his family when he was much younger, but this was a first for all the rest of us.

Our last stop was Cades Cove. I have been to several areas of the park, but never to Cades Cove. It is beautiful and though we didn't get to see bear, we did see turkey, deer and the horses that graze there.

I love pictures of churches. Just neat to think about the groups of believers that met together in this place over the years.
We had a great, quick wildflower trip and visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Blessed to be able to enjoy the beauty of God's creation and most of all, thankful for the Creator who made these beautiful things!