Summer 2019 - Bryson City, N. Carolina - Part 1

Photo link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sD2SrJh5o3MuAK3n6

Saturday July 6^th – Friday, August 2^nd
Country Girls RV Park, Bryson City, N. Carolina

Finally we’re back in Bryson City, one of our favorite places in the N. Carolina mountains. We will be staying here at Country Girls RV Park through the first week in September. In this park all campsites back up to the Tuckasegee River. It’s awesome to open our back ramp door to see and hear the river rapids. Our site also has a covered wooden deck on the riverside. This location is great, halfway between Bryson City and Cherokee. During this first month, we’ve been able to participate in various activities. We hiked one of our favorite trails, Noland Creek, heading south. This trail also heads north all the way up to Smokey Mountain N.P. and intersects with the Appalachian Trail. The dogs enjoy this hike, they can run free and drink from the creek. It’s not a long hike, but very beautiful with several creek crossing bridges. We mountain biked at Tsali Trails along Lake Fontana in the Nantahala National Forest and the new trails in Cherokee, Fire Mountain! Love them both, but Fire Mountain is definitely my favorite with my style of riding well-groomed and technical single track.

We really enjoy going up to the Nantahala Outdoor Center to watch the rafters coming down the river. This outdoor complex has white water rafting, hiking, zip lining, tree top adventure for kids, mountain bike trails, restaurants and accommodations. While there we did a short hike up on the A.T. We always visit this place in all the years we’ve been coming up here. Kurt did the white water rafting with one of our RV neighbors who is working there for the summer. Kurt also paddled the Tuckasegee River in my kayak.

One day we drove up through Cherokee and into the Great Smokey Mountains N.P. We took the dogs as we knew it would be a long day. We headed up to Clingman’s Dome. This is a walking structure at the peak of the mountain at 6600 feet elevation. We knew we couldn’t take the dogs on hiking trails, but were surprised when we found out they could not go up on the Dome path (which is paved). So I kept the dogs at the entry point and hung out while Kurt visited the Dome and took pictures. After leaving the dome area, we all hiked on a small portion of the A.T.

One of the fun things to do here is tubing in the rivers. We bought our own tubes this time and headed up to Deep Creek. We had a fun time, but the creek was crowded which made it a little difficult to maneuver with the rocks and current. We are still planning on tubing the Tuckasegee River, which runs right behind our RV. There are various put-ins and take-outs along this river. So much fun and many things to do.

So far, it’s been a very nice stay here. We have had our share of rainy days (as usual) and some pretty hot days. It just seems that wherever we go, the weather is getting warmer than it used to be. Hopefully we will have better weather in the next month. We still love this area and the mountains!