Cade's Cove

This past Sunday, my family went on a day trip to Cade's Cove, a beautiful, naturally preserved, x number of acres, which is home to bears, deer, elk, turkeys, horses, and any other type of creature who wonders upon it. It is an excellent place for sight-seeing, an 11 mile road snakes its way around and through the park. This road is great for biking and walking, with a half-way point gift shop, for rest and relaxation.

I took many pictures of the landscape, so here are a few from the trip up the mountain...

A little further up the mountain, we stopped to walk up to one of the lookout towers, and I am so glad we did. My grandparents hadn't been there in 30 years, so they were also happy we made the half-mile walk.

This is the trail we took.

Pretty little mushrooms along the way. =3



And finally, the lookout tower, er, part of it...



That's Rhen! She and the brother went on ahead.

Hello, sister!!



Say 'cheese!'

This is the zig-zag, concrete contraption that you use to get to the actual tower. It was pretty neat, actually. 

I don't like heights...

This pic is looking down at the trail from which we came.

Et voila! the tower!!

The view from the tower.

"Smile, pretty sisters!"

Breathtakingly beautiful.

The grandparents.

Don't they look happy. =D

(They're 44 anniversary is this Friday.)

Needless to say, it was VERY windy up there.

You know? you never really get to see the tops of those big trees.

So, I took a picture for you.

Close-up of the tower.

The spiral staircase was closed to visitors (to my relief).

Here's the maidens' parents, King and Queen.

Delicate beauties.

Ah, at last. We've made it to Cade's Cove!

I think this pic is my favorite, mainly because of the bright colors, the clouds, everything.

I love my camera. =D



In this picture, you can see the line of vehicles making their way through the park.

When we go to Cade's Cove, we look at everything. Most cars just skim through the beauty just to say they've been there, but when we go, we take our time. So, after we've accumulated maybe five or six cars we pull to the side of the one-way road and let them pass. Kind of us, isn't it? At one point, we counted over 18 cars that passed us by while we were at a pull-off.



So, that was our trip to Cade's Cove! The weather was perfect for it, calm and cloudy (every now and then), but the sun did decide to show itself at one point.  All in all, I think we saw four deer (one was a big buck, 6-8 point maybe), several turkeys, a squirrel or two, and some draft horses. No bears, we do like to see the bears, as long as they stay over there...

When we returned home, after a few more shopping stops, we found this (below) waiting for us in the south. Isn't it beautiful?

If you haven't guessed already, ... we love clouds. *dreamy look comes to face of the writer*

The sunset.

The same majestic cloud, though now, a bit closer I do believe. I like the outline of the cedar tree and then the poofiness of the clouds behind it.

By late evening the cloud was spreading out in the east, and we watched an incredible show of God's natural fireworks. I managed to get a video, which is quite long due to the length of time between the flashes of lightning. Unfortunately, I couldn't upload the video... at least not yet. But I will! I want our readers to see what we saw!

It was so majestically marvelous.

God's creation never ceases to amaze me.

Blessings,

Lady Elisera