Last year my husband, James, and I were able to take an amazing anniversary vacation to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee; you can read about that trip here. While we were there it snowed, which was beautiful, but it really put a damper on how much we were able to do. Luckily, we were able to go back last week with my family and have a kind of “do over” anniversary trip. I wanted to share what we did and the pictures with all of you!

We stayed in a gorgeous cabin located way out in the woods directly between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. If any of you are interested, it was the Fort Knoxx Cabin. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the inside before it was destroyed by all of our luggage and mess but you can see pictures of it through that link. The pictures above were all taken outside the cabin. As you can see, there really wasn’t any mountain views but it was surrounded by a lot of lovely nature. The only cons to this cabin is how difficult it is to get to and the lack of parking spaces.

I think one of my favorite moments from this entire trip was seeing the handsome guy pictured above very close to our cabin. He was happily munching on some grass until we disturbed him by stopping to take a picture.

We went back to the Ober Gatlinburg zoo because last year when we went the bears weren’t out so of course, I had to go see them. This is such a great little zoo and very affordable to visit.

After the Ober Gatlinburg zoo, we visited the new Alcatraz East Crime Museum. This place is so cool! It is literally a museum dedicated to the history of crime and punishment in America. It is a MASSIVE building and the pictures above are just the tiniest fraction of what they have. I really recommend visiting this if you’re in Pigeon Forge.

Other than the zoo and the Crime Museum, we really didn’t “do” much. We spent a lot of time just walking the main strip in Gatlinburg, shopping in Pigeon Forge and eating way too much food. The most memorable place we ate at was Mama’s Farmhouse in Pigeon Forge. They serve some of the best homestyle food I’ve ever had in my life. It is pricey at around $20.00 a plate but it is all you can eat served not buffet style, but brought to you. There’s so many good places to eat in that area but that’s the restaurant I recommend the most.

This is the makeup look I wore the two days I actually wore makeup. If you’re interested in what I packed, you can check out that post right here.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of me with my family but I took some of them and they took some of each other. I left the cabin to return home before them so they thought it would be funny to take a picture with one of my pictures so I would be there in spirit, lol.

We had such a great time but as always, I was happy to come home to my furry babies. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our vacation and I’d love to know if you’ve ever been to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg! Thanks for reading and have a great day!