Bears, Pizza, and No Wi-Fi: My Smoky Mountain Reality Check by Nandan Kamalakannan

 Bears, Pizza, and No Wi-Fi: My Smoky Mountain Reality Check by Nandan Kamalakannan

If you’re anything like me, your phone is basically glued to your hand. So, when my family planned a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, my biggest concern wasn't the hiking. It was the Wi-Fi.

We stayed in Gatlinburg for the whole trip, which is really cool, busy town right at the edge of the

mountains. But as soon as we drove into the actual national park, the bars on my phone dropped to zero.

Since I didn't have service, my phone was basically useless. My dad, on the other hand, was making up

for it by taking a million pictures. He kept joking that he needed to photograph every single tree because

he’s getting older and might not ever visit this place again in his lifetime.

Even without my phone to distract me, there was definitely no time to be bored.

One day, we drove through Cades Cove, which is basically a Smoky Mountain safari. We spent hours

staring out the windows looking for some crazy wild animals, but all we ended up watching were a bunch

of deer.

The funny thing is, we found the real wildlife when we weren't even looking for it. We ended up having two

separate bear encounters. One was literally right at the back of our car just outside our hotel compound in

Gatlinburg. The other was high up in a massive tree when we were visiting Anakeesta. Seeing a wild bear

that close definitely makes you forget about checking your Snapchat.

When we weren't running from bears, we were doing the fun tourist stuff. Walking across the SkyBridge

and taking the SkyLift were awesome experiences. We also spent some time in the nearby town of

Pigeon Forge, and hanging out at The Island attraction there was amazing.

Of course, all that exploring makes you hungry. We actually got completely addicted to Mellow Mushroom

pizza while we were there. We ended up eating it for dinner every single night of the trip. No regrets.

But the biggest reality check of the entire vacation was the actual hiking.

I always thought I was in pretty decent shape. But when we tried to hike to the very top of the Smoky

Mountain park, I got humbled real quick. Out of our whole family, only my dad was actually able to make it

to the top. The rest of us? Not a chance.

Even though I didn't conquer the mountain, being forced to unplug for a few days made the whole

experience so much better.

I wasn't distracted by what everyone else was doing back home in New Jersey. I was just there—eating

way too much pizza, surviving bear encounters, and letting my dad take his lifetime supply of photos.

Going to the Smoky Mountains showed me that you don't need to document every single second of your

life for a vacation to be fun. Sometimes, you just need to put the phone away and enjoy the view.