One Last Hike

Today it was souvenir shopping and one last hike. I wanted to find some authentic Cherokee handicrafts so we headed downtown. Cherokee is a very tourist oriented town with souvenir shop after souvenir shop lining the streets. Should be easy to find something, right? Wrong! Tacky souvenir junk and t-shirts were a dime a dozen but authentic crafts, non-existent. Fortunately I remembered passing some kind of Native American store on the way to Cherokee so we backtracked and checked it out. The merchandise was a bit pricey but it was authentic so I got my souvenirs. After shopping Bob and I headed for Mingo Falls which is located about 1/2 mile north of the KOA. Because we didn't know how strenuous a hike it would be to the falls Mike opted out. The first part of the trail was a set of stairs that made us "huff" and "puff" a bit but once the top was reached the trail leveled out and it was just a quick hike to the falls. These falls were impressive - not a lot of water but the water drops over 120 feet. We went back to the campground and got Mike so he could see a "real" waterfall. After a trip to the end of Big Cove Road to satisfy our curiosity Bob and Mike loaded the car on the hauler for tomorrow's departure.