Fontana Village in the Great Smoky Mountains was the next stop on our adventure. After navigating some exciting mountain roads pulling the camper at night, we sprawled out in a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom cabin! After 3 weeks in the camper it was definitely a treat to have some more space. However, there was no cell coverage for AT&T or TMobile in the cabin area so we had to work in the Lodge every day to use the Verizon hotspot. The small village of cabins had very few people and was full of small mountain creeks and cool nature sights. We practically had the place to ourselves. No line at the grill or mini-golf or laundramat!
Since we had no internet service we explored the village, played mini golf, did some hiking and played a lot of cribbage. We found cool natural things like vines taking over trees, cool giant rocks and just different nature than Minnesota has. We (all 4 of us) all had fun playing in the mountain streams!
The Great Smoky Mountain National park was partially closed for the winter so we had to drive over to Cherokee, NC to find an open entrance. Lucky for Cece and Odie one of the 2 dog friendly trails in the park was near that entrance. We hiked along the Cherokee river and saw a restored farm that was near the visitors center. The Cherokee River is used by in-training white water rafters.
Fontana Village is one of the housing options for the Appalachian Trail through-hikers. We saw a few different individual hikers stop in for a room for a couple nights. They come in looking achy and tired and wet and dirty. We would see them walk by after they’ve had a shower and a hot meal at the grill looking like completely transformed people!