Les Jones

Travel > Back from Camping

The trip to Kephart Shelter was great. Everyone had a great time. The kids loved it, and complained much less than Melissa did on her first backpacking trip. (Ouch! Well, OK, dear, Icewater Springs was a much harder hike.)

I didn't mention it last weekend, but this was my birthday hike. October is my favorite month, and so for my birthday I like to take a trip somewhere in the Southern Appalachians, which are just gorgeous this time of year.

The fall colors are peaking right now at the high elevations of the Smokies. The lower elevations should be their most colorful next week. As a rule of thumb, the peak color in the park is usually the second or third weekend in October, and that was true this year.

After we got off the trail we drove to the Oconaluftee visitor's center and toured the homestead exhibit, then had lunch in Cherokee, North Carolina. Once we got back over the mountain, Charla took the kids back to Kingsport, and Melissa and I went to Gatlinburg to split a Beer Sampler at the Smoky Mountain Brewery. Then we hit the Apple Barn for fried apple pies and a half bushel of Stayman Winesaps. A perfect autumn trip.

Bonus park history for reading this far down: Horace Kephart was a botanist and early proponent of making the Smokies a national park. He's best known for his book, Our Southern Highlanders.