Family

North Carolina Waterfalls

by Rachel Gaetz

Last month my family and I loaded up our minivan for a road trip to Asheville, North Carolina! The purpose of the trip was to get my husband Joe to compete in a Spartan Race out there, but also to visit some new territory for us. Last year our family took our first big road trip to Colorado and had such a great time that we wanted to do the same type of travel, but to a different location. Part of our trip included a bunch of hiking and exploring a couple different waterfalls in the area. This first set of photos is from Catawba Falls. (Our Airbnb was only a half mile from the trail head).

I will forever and always be grateful to strangers who offer to take a whole family photo for us!

This actually ended up being a pretty technical trail, but the kids did great (with some help from found walking sticks). And it's not everyday you get to frolic at the bottom of a waterfall! After this 3 mile round trip, we ordered pizza, bathed everyone and settled in for a cozy evening. It was fantastic!

We also drove out to Linville Falls and probably hiked about another 3 miles to see all of the different overlooks. Something I was extremely surprised and pleased with was the total lack of bugs and mosquitos! I figured being in the south during July was going to be really buggy, but not a bite on any of us!

Cece took this photo of me! I kept wearing long shirts with shorts, so I look pants-less, but I'm really not. I love having baby bump photos to show #4 all the places he/she got to tag along too!