Summer of 19 - #14 - Great Smoky Mountains Railway & National Park-Deep Creek

Friday August 30th, 2019
We wanted to see the Great Smoky Mountains Steam Train in action.  As we couldn't afford a ride on it, I looked on google maps to try and find somewhere we could hopefully get some good pictures.  I found this spot which wasn't far from the station in Bryson City where it started.
Here's a LINK to the video I took, and Bryan took the pictures below.

We saw the smoke first

There she is

Onto the bridge

The passengers looked as though they were enjoying themselves.

It was a nice day for a ride and they had only just started their journey.  As the engine was about to disappear behind the trees............

the back carriages were still going over the bridge.

We were quite happy that we had seen it. This weekend is the last time the steam train is running while we are here.

We decided to go and see the local waterfalls.  These are in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just a few minutes drive from where we are.

There's no fee to enter this park and this LINK explains why.

We reached Deep Creek and found the parking lot for the trails.

Here's a LINK showing the waterfalls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which covers a vast area.  We're going to see how many we can visit.  Some will be impossible for us if there is a strenuous hike to get to them.
There are three waterfalls here, Juney Whank Falls would be our first one.  The man in the visitor center told us that there was quite an incline to this one but once we got that out of the way, the rest would be easy.

Susie climbing the trail

We eventually got to the falls.

There was a short steep path down

Our first view of the falls

Lower Falls

Upper Falls

Three young men asked if we would take a picture of all of them, and Bryan did.  They then returned the favor by taking this one of us.  The waterfall is behind us but you cant really see it that well.

Continuing on the trail to the next waterfall, we climbed back up.

Our last look at Juney Whank Falls

I like that this is a loop trail and so you don't go back the way you came.

We came to the river, it was so pretty.

Next was the trail to the other two falls.  This went alongside the river.

We reached Tom Branch Falls, you can see it in the background in the picture below.

It was a lovely waterfall and there were seats there that you could sit and relax.  There were some fly fishermen here but we still managed to get some pictures of the waterfall without them in it.

This river is also a popular spot for tubing and we saw many people hiking up to the "put in point" to then float down the river.
There was also a guy snorkeling, and looking for anything interesting that the tubers may have lost as they were going down river.  You can see him in the picture below, look for the orange, just off centre to the left, that was his breathing tube and you might be able to make him out.

Here's a couple of tubers floating by.  Looked like fun and I wish I could do it.  Maybe one day, but there is still the fear that I might tip over.  It's not deep here though so I might be ok.

We continued along the trail toward Indian Creek Falls.

It was such a pretty walk and relatively flat.

We saw a bridge ahead and some tubers in the distance.

Bryan on the bridge & a tuber about to go under the bridge

Tuber going under the bridge on his way down the river

Bryan taking pictures

Tubers taking a break on the rocks

and going over the rapids

she made it safely

There's the scuba diver again, searching for treasures.

Another tuber heading for the rapids

After a short rest we continued on our walk, but it started to go uphill and there was no sign of the falls.

We decided to stop, return to the bench and have a snack.  We had done two miles, a lot of up and down hills, and we had to get back to the car.  Bryan was struggling a little, and we didn't want to push it too far.  We would have a little less than 2 miles to return, and so we decided that was enough for today.

This lady came and rested on the rocks by the rapids.  I had spoken to her at Juney Whank Falls and she was just enjoying the peace and cooler temperatures here.

We started our walk back to the car.

The shadows were creating some good effects.

We didn't realize that the walk from Tom Branch Falls to the car park was very short.  We had done the longer trail to Juney Whanks and we realized that we probably could have continued to Indian Creek Falls.  Oh well, maybe we'll come back another day.

What a wonderful day we had again, a steam train and waterfalls in glorious settings.  Take care.