Laurel Falls!

I have never before been hiking in the winter.  I get cold pretty easily and while I've thought it would be beautiful to do, I've never had the gear necessary to make me not freeze.  Well, last week, I went hiking.  In the snow.  In jeans and thin socks and my normal shoes.  Let me back up just a bit.  I go to Knoxville to my alma mater, Johnson Bible College, every year for Homecoming.  I love Homecoming.  It's loads of fun.  Now that Tony is a student at JBC, I went a few days early and stayed a few days late.  Homecoming started Tuesday night, was all day Wednesday and ended on Thursday at noon.  After lunch and a nap, Tony, Josh and I headed to the mountains. 
There's a great overlook on the Gatlinburg Bypass that I love to stop at.  You can totally tell the difference between Tony and I--Tony's just in a T-shirt and button down and I'm wear my hat, scarf, gloves, coat and have a fleece on underneath!  What can I say?  I get cold easily! 

We originally planned on going to the Comedy Barn and doing some shopping.  But, the Comedy Barn wasn't doing a show that night and we had the whole afternoon, so to the mountains we went!  We got to the Sugarlands Visitor's Center and saw that the road to Newfound Gap, our original destination, was closed because of snow and ice.  Bummer dude.  Newfound is gorgeous:

I was really looking forward to seeing it in the snow, but that was not to be.  So, we pointed the car towards Cades Cove to see what we could see.  

We stopped at an overlook and got these pretty pictures:

*sigh*  I love that man so very much.  

Then we saw a sign for Laurel Falls.  I have a thing for waterfalls.  And ever since Tony and I hiked Burgess Falls State Park in August, I've wanted to do more.  And when he decided to transfer to JBC, I knew that I wanted to make it a loose goal of ours to visit all of the waterfalls in the Smokies.  Laurel Falls is one of the more well known waterfalls in the Smokies.  There's a 1.3 mile trail to the waterfall that is paved, so it's pretty easy.  I asked if we could go and the boys were up for it, so we parked the car and headed into the mountains.  The Smokies are beautiful any time, but I think they are especially pretty in the winter.  I'd never seen them covered in snow, but it was incredible.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

 

It was a great hike and we had a blast!  I was cold, but mostly okay.  My shoes were pretty wet, but I peeled them off and stuck my toes under the heater and that dried my socks quickly.  It was definitely worth it. I look forward to many more winter hikes!