Laurel Falls Trail - A Hot Trail for Bear Seeing in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Laurel Falls Trail is a 1.3 mile trail to a beautiful fall. It's an easy trail. It's even and there is no large elevation change. We asked a ranger about bear seeing and were recommended this trail. We were very lucky. On the returning, we saw one mother bear and one little bear on the woodland. Very close. The mother was very big and watched around to protect the baby. My wife and I were very excited because one of our purposes in the national park is to see bears. So, you can try this trail in the early morning or late afternoon if you would like to see bears closely. (We found three bears in the Cades Cove Loop Road but they were far away. A telescope is helpful to see bears.)

Laurel Falls

the mother bear and the baby

WaterRock Knob Trail on Blue Ridge Parkway

Waterrock Knob Trail is located at Milepost 451.2. The elevation here is about 5800 feet at the parking lot and over 6000 feet at the summit. The trail has two stop point. One is the pedestrian overlook at 0.21 mile and the other is the Waterrock Knob at 0.5 mile. It's easy from parking lot to the ped overlook with a paved trail. But hiking from the overlook to the Knob is quite difficult. You'll walk along a "stream" trail and sometimes you have to climb up. But we like here. We felt here special and beautiful (after our visit of Great Smoky Mountain). The experience of hiking on the trail is wonderful.

The view from the trail

The view from the ped overlook to the parking lot

From this picture, you should know why it's called "waterrock" trail. Water streamed down through the trail.

 We started at 5:30pm. It became misty soon. 

Heavy mist led to a difficulty to identify the route. There are many Y-shaped intersections which making it easy to get lost on the trail especially with heavy mist (we almost got lost). Be careful in this situation.

Camping in Trap Pond State Park (DE) near Ocean City

The campsite is with water and electric hookup and 28 dollars per night. The space between campsites is kind of small but acceptable. There is little fly and a lot of woods you can collect. We collected enough woods from the ground (you may need an ax) and had a fantastic BBQ.

This is the campground entrance. You need to register here. If you come late, self registration is allowed (just put money in the envelope and fill out a form).

This is our 8P tent. It's big enough for five people. It may be too crowd for eight people.

 In the State Park, a hot activity is canoe or kayak. Six dollars for one canoe per hour. It's very cheap. You only need at most two hours to go around the Trap Pond.

There are some shelters for fishing activity. It's a good choice to fish in the center of the pond with a canoe or kayak. But you need a Delaware fishing license.

http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/Fisheries/Pages/FishingInfo.aspx.

The driving time from this park to Ocean City is about 40 minutes. If you would like to camp around Ocean City, usually you need to reserve a campsite at least two months ago in summer. If you can't, the campground at Trap Pond State Park is good choice near OC.

My Craft - Small Dining Table

This is my handmade dining table as a gift for friends' moving.

I forgot to take a standing picture for it. lol

L-shped connectors are used to fix the legs. But just one side. I think the connectors should be applied to both sides for a stronger structure.