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TAKE A HIKE
It was a beautiful wintery day in the mountains…(some days seem almost dreamlike)
when we decided to drive to the Oconaluftee Valley and take a mid-day hike.
This valley is one of our favorite spots in the mountains…
It’s where the Cherokee have left their mark…
and now serves as North Carolina’s main entrance
to The Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
There is a hike we love to take…in the summer we’re in shorts
but today we’re in coats and jeans…
We hike through the woods by the river…
by the way…by the river is what Oconaluftee means.
It’s a peaceful walk…where we can stroll as slowly as we please
taking time to enjoy the music of the birds, the river and the trees.
It’s an easy hike in the woods…where we slowly amble through…
stopping by the river every now and then to skip a stone or two.
If you’re lucky you may even see some elk…keeping your distance as they pass
through the trees to take a drink from the river…or to graze on the valley’s grass.
On this day we were lucky…we shared our hike with the trees an occasional bird
and not with one or two elk…but with their entire herd.
Most were grazing in the grass but up ahead of us was a beautiful female
who had finished grazing and stopped to rest by the river…
completely blocking the trail.
This meant our hike was cut a little short…because we are aware.
this is her home not ours….and we were merely visitors there.
But we did stop to take in the majesty of this herd
and to once again thank nature for allowing us to see
by her river, her trees and her elk…the beauty of her extended family.
The beauty of a hike in nature is once you’ve finished you want to hike some more
It matters not how many times you’ve hiked this path before.
Even if it’s on a trail by a river with a beautiful Cherokee name…
you find by the simple diversity of nature…no two hikes will ever be the same.
