Jewel Cave National Monument – Scenic Tour

Jewel Cave National Monument - Formation Room

The Scenic Tour of Jewel Cave National Monument explores deeper into the cave than the short Discovery Tour which I also joined this morning by mistake. Prepare yourself to traverse up & down over 730 stairs through a 1/2 mile loop that descends several hundred feet. After starting again at the Target Room we immediately … Read more

Max Patch Mountain

Max Patch Mountain - Kelly looking down the trail

Woke up and left Gatlinburg with some time for day hiking before the next destination.  Cold and wet weather killed most of our planned hikes, but we decided to try our luck on Max Patch, one of the most popular viewpoints along the Appalachian Trail.  Remember that smoky fog from yesterday? Well that doesn’t look too … Read more

Timms Hill

Timms Hill - View from top of tower

Last winter I started dreaming up “side quests” for future journeys – mostly to help discover new places to visit, but also as a pseudo bucket-list to keep me moving.  One dark and cold night, I was using my Google-fu and came across the concept of highpointing which is to visit all the highest points … Read more