You know how I love the Park (Part 2)

The other excursion we did while in Great Smoky Mountains National Park was to hike the Laurel Falls Trail, a two-and-a-half mile trail (round-trip) that goes from the main road back into the woods to a series of waterfalls, so named because they are surrounded by hundreds of mountain laurel bushes.

 Now, I haven't seen a lot of mountain laurel since I left New York.  We had two or three bushes in our garden on Long Island, but it's not very common in Northern California.  So I went a bit crazy on the mountain laurel photos.

The trail was just gorgeous, with little streams and flowers everywhere

When we finally got to the Falls, there were people everywhere, but we still managed to find a quiet spot and let Pandora paddle in the water a little bit.

We were fortunate to get there early in the day because the parking area at the trailhead was absolutely jammed with people waiting for spaces.  There were still a lot of people on the trail and we heard maybe fifteen different languages as we made our way up and back.  Next time, I'll be in better shape, and I'll bring a tripod.