Family Vacation (part 5, Arch Rock)

After our day spent in town, we were ready to get back to the national park.  When deciding which hikes to take, we looked for ones that were fairly easy and not very long.  Our first one, to Grotto Falls, is very popular and we knew it would be fairly crowded.  For our second, we wanted something a little less popular, but still with something that would interest the kids.  We settled on hiking the Alum Trail, but only as far as Arch Rock.  After Arch Rock, the trail gets much more difficult and a little over 4.5 miles round trip would be too much for the kids.  I would love to go all the way up to the bluffs some other time though.

 This was taken after our hike again.  We are just too eager to get started and don't remember to take a photo beforehand.

 How Dorothy traveled for the bulk of our hike.  It had rained the night before, so it was still pretty wet when we started.  Some water from the trees dripped on her, and she was D.O.N.E., declaring, "I don't like nature!"  What we didn't realize at the time was that she was starting to feel a bit sick and she came down with a terrible cough the next morning.  Luckily for Kevin, we both found this hike to be a lot less tiring than the one to Grotto Falls.

 Malcolm had asked to do a hike where there were bridges.  There were two regular wooden brides early on on the trail.  Later, there were three of these cut log bridges with a railing on only one side.  They were fine, but only having one railing made me a bit nervous with the kids.

 He really loved them though and thought they were pretty exciting.

 The first one we came to, I held one of Dorothy's hands and walked in front of her.  She held the railing with her other hand, and Kevin hovered behind her.  We were a sight.  After that, she was a lot more confident and just used the railing while Kevin hovered.

 She thought it was a lot like walking the balance beam at gymnastics class, and even did two foot jump down.

 I took this from the center of one of the log bridges because I thought it was pretty.

 Arch Rock is in the center.  The softer rock in the middle has washed away, leaving the harder, surrounding rock.

 There were steps carved into the rock to climb to go up through the tunnel.

 They look fairly wide with her on them, but they are really only one person wide.  You have to wait if someone is going the opposite direction.

 Kevin and Dorothy made it out!

 Going down was much more difficult than going up.  Both kids were a little unsure that the cable that was there to hold was going to support them.

 On the hike back, we encountered this little guy on the trail.  He was pretty cool, but I don't think he was doing very well.  We moved him over to the side with a stick.  We also found a slug on a log which the kids liked.


 After our hike, we headed back to the Chimney picnic area for lunch.  It was more crowded this time, but we did manage to get a table; just not by the water.

 After lunch, we climbed down to the river.  Malcolm liked climbing the big rocks.

Dorothy was still more interested in throwing rocks in the water.


After naps, we stayed at the cabin and had pizza and movie night.  I went and picked up the pizza and there was a DVD rental machine right there.  The pickings for family movies was pretty slim, but we watched Epic, which was surprisingly better than we thought it would be.  It was about the forest, which seemed appropriate, and there wasn't nearly the amount of cringe-worthy material like a lot of movies aimed at kids.  The slug and snail comic relief were the kids' favorites.




Dorothy had a really bad cough the next day, but was otherwise fine, so we headed out to the Arts and Crafts loop to see the artisans.  We ended up cutting it a bit short and heading back to the cabin for leftover pizza for lunch.  We tried to go out to cookout at one of the picnic areas, but turned around and went back to our cabin because she was so crabby and not feeling well.  It was a good choice, because she was much better by the next day.

 For years, Kevin has joked that he is going to get me a manatee mailbox.  This was right behind us when we parked the car, so we took a picture.  There was no price tag, so I'm afraid to know how much it costs.

At one of the many pottery places, the kids did a little rocking after watching the artisans work.

It was good to have a lazy day.  It let Dorothy feel better and all of us recharged a bit for our final day in TN.