Trip to Great Smoky Mountains

We left Pittsburgh at 1:30pm, May 27 and headed toward I79S->I77S->I81S->I40W->441 (~500miles). We arrive at Gatlinburg at around 7:30. A lot of things happened and we finally moved into hotel nearly 12:00am.
Our first destination was Cades Cove. We stopped at the information center for a while and then we were on the way to Cades Cove. Here is what you can see at one of the overlook site on the way.

We arrived at Cades Cove at 10:30, and we drove along the one-way loop trail, stopping a couple of times taking pictures. Here we go!

sightseeing truck


小周积极要照相亲照,引发大家第一轮portrait热情



At 2:30pm, we started a long hiking trip towards Abrams Fall, which is said to has the largest water volume of any park fall, and is among the most photogenic.. The trail begins in the back of Cades Cove loop road.
creek


chenyu行色匆匆, 小周手舞足蹈

最后到了,不过是个七八米落差的小玩意

有个哥们在这玩跳水

大家还是到此一游留影,注意chenyu的拐棍



金发美女出现,小周惊呼不枉来回5 miles



Then we decided to see sunset at Clingmans Dome. hoho, there were a lot of parking lot there fortunately, and our driver Joseph was able to see the sunset with us instead of staying with the SUV.
我们上到山顶观景台上了

小周在山顶摆pose

落日前暖暖的阳光

落日前日照山林

sunset

日落后火烧的云彩与晚霞


We came to see sunrise the second day still at Clingmans Dome. Terrific scene!!!
日出前半个月亮照在山冈上

南边的群山



太阳开始出来，映红了上面的一大片天，可惜乌云笼罩着大部分天

太阳出来半个身子了

这时候太阳其实已经升起来了，后来就干脆全跑到乌云里去了


日出时合影　（出院前后对比照）
当时巨冷，我们把能穿上的都穿上了．据小周说，他数的，chenyu穿了五件上衣，他不告诉我他是怎么数的．

注意小周目光呆滞，传说中是开180和360的弯时打轮打的，当时见到圆的就要转，我的cd未能幸免


After a driving tour along newfound gap visiting cherokee Indian reservation area and then roaring fork, we went back.