Turning 30 In Tennessee Pt. 2

My best travel partners have four legs, wet noses, and slobbery kisses.

If you haven't read part one yet, you missed out on all of the planning that went into the trip, so don't forget to go back and check that post out too.

For today's post, I'm focusing on what it was like to actually be in Gatlinburg, TN with seven people and five dogs. This one will also be really heavy on the photos of cute dogs, and my family.

It Was A Mad House:

We rented a house in Sevierville, TN, which placed us just about 20 minutes from everything we wanted to do. The house we rented was exactly what I would have picked, and I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by people who know me so well. I also can't believe how lucky we got to find a place on AirBNB that was not just dog friendly, but five dog friendly.

There were three levels to the house. The basement included a half bathroom, bedroom, and the garage that had been converted into a game room. My grandparents picked the basement as their bedroom, which in a way made sense since it was the only level we knew we wouldn't be letting the dogs go to. The main level consisted of the living room, kitchen, dining room, full bathroom, and a large bedroom. Dog Dad and I took the main level since that's where the dogs would be spending most of their time (and I had zero interest in dealing with ushering the pups up and down stairs each night and morning). The third floor had a loft with two beds and the master suite. My sister and nephew had the loft, which she ended up not totally loving, because she could hear everything early in the morning. My grandma uses a percolator for her coffee, which is loud, and then I had four dogs ready to go by 6:30 each morning. I'm sure it was quite the symphony to wake up to. My dad and Kai took the master bedroom upstairs, so each night Kai got to go up the stairs. The best part was watching him try to figure out going down the stairs each morning. It was a funky combination of walking down the stairs and flinging himself down them.

The fenced part of the yard had a steep-ish incline and was pretty muddy from snow and rain before we got there, but it was definitely large enough to accommodate all of pups romping around. Besides, they like mud and getting dirty, so that was a bonus for them. The fenced yard also connected to the porch which wrapped around the entire house and offered great views. There was also a larger part of the porch that jutted out to the side yard for extra seating and a firepit.

Reaper wasn't particularly excited to be around so many people, but he did a great job of removing himself from the situations he wasn't comfortable with. Kai was a little surprising, because he was pretty vocal about not wanting to be with strangers (my grandparents). I didn't see that coming, but I suspect he might have been entering a fear stage. We took a lot of precautions because dogs weren't allowed on the furniture. So I packed a lot of extra blankets to cover the couch and extra sheets to cover the beds. I tried really hard to keep them off the furniture and was successful about 80% of the time.

Rudy quickly became my grandparents' favorite, Yondu tried to get into everyone's laps 24/7, Reaper and Kai avoided strangers, and Grimm tried to convince everyone he needed to sit with them on the couch. Overall, the dogs were really well-behaved, and I would definitely take them on another trip.

The Things We Did:

We were in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area from January 20th thru the 23rd. We spent the 20th and the 23rd on the road, so that really just left us the Saturday and Sunday to explore the area. If we'd been able to swing more time off of work, I definitely could have kept myself busy for a whole week.

Rowdy Bear's Smoky Mountain Snowpark

A big driving force behind going to Tennessee was the snow. Unfortunately, we missed the natural snow, and opted for some man-made snow fun. On Saturday, the whole family loaded up and we visited Rowdy Bear's Smoky Mountain Snowpark in Pigeon Forge. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't necessarily super thrilled by the idea initially, but my grandpa wouldn't stop asking, "So, what's the plan for today?" when all I really wanted to do was lay around and be lazy after driving over 14 hours the day before. But, I'm super grateful that we got up and went out. I had a blast tubing down a giant mountain of snow (mostly backwards) and throwing snowballs at my nephew. My grandpa and my nephew also rode the two rollercoasters the park has. One of them was the Ski Lift Shootout Coaster where you ride as a team of two and work to shoot targets along your path through the park. I think that one ended up being their favorite.

My nephew and I also spent a while playing in the snow that Rowdy Bear makes for kids to play in. They had a sign that told us not to throw the snow... but I didn't see it until we were already done. We took our time practicing making snowballs, and then we tossed big fistfuls of snow into the air while my sister took a slow-mo video of us. But I think everyone's favorite part was when I busted my ass and fell into the snow. I played into it and just laid there making snow angels from the torso up. I got to feel the joy I remember feeling as a kid when I played in snow, so that was really special, even more so because I got to share it with my nephew.

Dog Dad and my dad opted to hang out at the bottom of the snow mountain and were our photographers while the rest of us slid down at what felt like 100 miles per hour. Now, with our tickets, we got 90 minutes to go snow-tubing as many times as we wanted. I'm generally a bit afraid of heights, but I couldn't chicken out if my eight year old nephew was doing it. The first test came right after grabbing our tubes, we had to then ride up a sort of conveyor belt to the top of the hill. Imagine surfing up an escalator, that was basically the vibe. At the top of the hill, you line your tube up, plop your butt in, and shimmy your way to the very edge before gravity (or a nice nudge from the attendant) send you over the edge to start careening down the hill. My tube spun around every time, so I took most the course backwards and screamed bloody murder since I couldn't see where I was going. Luckily, I stayed in my tube and in my lane. I learned that the best way to go down facing forward was to go down as a double. My sister and I did that a couple of times, and we tried to film it. It turns out that when you're zipping down a snow hill, holding your phone isn't as important as holding onto the tube's handles. I think in total I went down six or seven times. I definitely had time to do it more times than that, but I started getting a little winded and took a break to watch for a bit. I tried to convince Dog Dad to go, but since he spent a big chunk of his life in New Jersey, he wasn't as excited by snow as I was.

The Gatlinburg Trail

On Sunday my dad, grandparents, and nephew went to WonderWorks while my sister and I took Grimm and Reaper for a hike on the Gatlinburg Trail, which is part of the Great Smoky Mountains. From the moment I found out about this trip, a hike with the dogs was my number one to do, and I'm so glad it got to done. I was a little nervous that I'd have to choose which pup got to go on this adventure with me, but because my sister came along, both of my best boys could come with me. I can handle both dogs relatively easily under day-to-day circumstances, but in a new place that I was confident would be full of new people and terrain, having extra human back-up was something I knew would be important.

In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, only two trails are dog friendly: the Gatlinburg Trail and the Oconaluftee River Trail. According to the National Park Services website, dogs are permitted in campgrounds, picnic areas, and along roads throughout the park, but to ensure preserve the environment for the park's wildlife population, dogs are limited to specific areas. To be honest, I don't want to think about trying to keep Grimm or Reaper from chasing a big fluffy bear, because I think a bear would win. The NPS site also offers some alternative options for people who want to explore with their pets in the areas surrounding the Great Smoky Mountains, and if you want to see that list, just click here to plan your visit.

Alright, about the trail though. Like I mentioned in the last post, I live in Florida where pretty much everything is flat, so this trail was something I knew I really wanted to do. The Gatlinburg Trail is about 1.9 miles one-way and you travel from the Sugarlands Visitor Center to the outskirts of the city of Gatlinburg. The NPS site describes the trail as being "relatively flat" which I think for most people who are used to changes in terrain would agree with. There are a lot of areas along the trail to see the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River, which you cross over at one point. If you're a trail runner, this trail would be really great to do when it isn't too busy.

I found myself in awe of the river, the forest, the quiet, just... all of it. I never really thought about how much I really enjoy being out in nature, but it really felt like a religious experience for me in some moment. There are several areas along the trail where you can leave the beaten path a bit to get closer to the river, and other places with steep drop offs that were equal parts gorgeous and terrifying. Grimm is my water dog, so any time we got close to the river he couldn't resist walking in. I wasn't sure how Reaper would react, but he actually did really well and walked into the river a bit himself, but he was pretty content to just drink the water. It wasn't super busy for most of the time we were on the trail, but the closer we got to the end along the edge of Gatlinburg, the traffic started to pick up.

I love Reaper, but he wasn't the easiest to handle when the crowds started to pick up. He was okay when pairs of people walked by, but when traffic picked up there was a large family walking and their kids had sticks in their hands. It turns out nothing is scarier to Reaper than small children with big sticks. Grimm was attempting to be Mr. Social, and when we wouldn't let him approach others he got pretty loud about it. I'll be honest, that was really frustrating in the moment. I felt embarrassed and several times just wanted to run the whole way back to the car to end the whole adventure. But in hindsight, I realize this was something that I should have expected. I know Grimm is a loud mouth, and I know that when he was younger I never really forced him not to interact with strangers. If anything, I encouraged him to greet people because I thought that was the only way to socialize him. So, he didn't really do anything that I wouldn't have encouraged

when he was a small little fluffball, but now that he's pushing 60 pounds, him trying to drag me to every person or dog he sees isn't as cute. We weren't the only dogs on the trail, which wasn't super surprising. For the most part, all of our interactions with other dogs were loud (thanks Grimm) but generally uneventful. Aside from the one person who decided that their dogs didn't need to be on leash and that they could take up the whole path.

I'm really excited to keep working with both Grimm and Reaper to make hiking and trail adventures a more regular part of our routine. This hike also gave me hope that Reaper might actually like the beach, so this summer might be really fun for us.

Walks Around The Neighborhood

My sister and I both like to be outside, apparently, because we took the dogs out walking quite a bit. The house we rented was up a really steep, borderline terrifying dirt road. It turns out that when you're not in a car, it's actually pretty beautiful and fun. There was a little creek running alongside the road, and a lot of really interesting rock formations. It was just a really nice way to get away from so many people in one space, so we made the most of it.

And there you have it, a not-so-brief summary of our Gatlinburg adventures.

Thanks for reading this tail, and hopefully many more!

Danielle