Alum Cave Trail Bluffed...

Have you climbed a mountain before? If you have, we have mad respect for you. On day two of our Smoky Mountain cabin retreat we decided we would try to hike an 11 mile trail up a mountain that offered awesome views and even (what we thought) caves. Saturday morning before we left a cold front came through that took the weather from upper 60's in the day to the mid to lower 40's and at night even lower into the 20's. From the rainstorm that brought the front, the electricity in our cabin as well as the water, went out, leaving us similar to camping... or should I say glamping since we were still in a beautiful cabin.

Nearly at the top
After the morning struggles of getting a group of 7 people fed and ready to go without power and water, we made it to the Alum Cave Trail-head around midday. We stopped a few times throughout the drive to the trail to admire the beautiful colors of the trees and what looked to be some snowy mountain tops in the higher altitudes.

Once we arrived, the photo-ops were endless. From down logs perfect for some group poses, to the beautiful stream we got to walk along on the trail, even the crossing logs were all blowing our minds with beauty and serenity. We arrived at the "cave" which was really just a hole in the rock of the side of the mountain and realized that it was not our final destination. Our original goal was to hike about 5.5 miles to the top of Mount LeConte and back down (totaling 11 miles) but when we realized the late start we got mixed with the tired feeling of high altitudes in all of us homegrown Floridians and the near constant uphill battle, we decided we'll save the full trail for when we train for something like that. Nonetheless, the arrival at the bluff overlooking an endless view of other mountain tops was worth every bit of struggle and cold weather shivers we felt.

We travel to do things we don't get to do often. We travel to be in new places with close friends. We travel to build our experiences of the world and see things we've never seen. My husband and I have never got to experience the views we saw on this vacation and I'm so grateful to have shared such a breathtaking view with people who mean so much to me.

Alum Bluff
When it comes down to it, we don't have the money or means to live our life travelling, we don't have our passports to enable us to bounce around from country to county (yet, we are working on it), and we find it incredibly difficult to leave our little furry friend, Fiona, for much more than a few days at a time, so for a pretty "average" couple, I enjoy our monthly trips to random places that let us feel a little smaller and not so "average".

The Cave Entrance


We didn't have cellular reception at our cabin or in the mountain range, we didn't have to worry about calls from work or honking of cars or any kind of fast-paced modern life stuff... when we were up look at the other mountains, though not as high as most mountains in the world, it was still quite. It was nice to just "be" in the moment and feel yourself just inhale and exhale and know that in that particular moment you just... "were".  We had a blast taking pictures of the surroundings and enjoying each others company in a place we'd never been and it really inspired us to do more vacations like it.


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