The visit will start with a special zoo encounter provided by the Zoo Knoxville Education Team. After that, the matches are free to take in the various zoo exhibits at their own pace.

We will start the day at the Appalachian Bear Rescue Visitor and Education Center located in Townsend. Here we will learn about black bears and how we can co-exist with them. Then we will travel to the nearby Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse in the Great Smoky Mountains where we will eat lunch and see what it was like to attend a one-room schoolhouse nearly 100 years ago. We will take a 1-mile walk (2 mile round trip) to the Walker Sister's home. https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/historyculture/walker-sister

We will start the afternoon with a “Pond Party” where we will use dip nets and other collection tools to discover what lives in the several ponds around Ijams. We will also take a short hike to see what is blooming and leafing out during the springtime renewal of life in the forest.

With nearly-continuous Class II-IV rapids like Lost Guide and Accelerator and views into Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Upper Pigeon delivers. More info here: https://noc.com/trips/pigeon-river-rafting-upper-pigeon. The NOC requires youth to be at least 8 years old and weigh over 70 pounds. The Sierra Club will pay the rafting fee for the youth and all adults will pay their fee of $50. RSVP for more details. Saturday, July 20th at 10am-5pm

Sat. August 17th, 11am-2pm Let’s get a little exercise - a hike to a waterfall in the Smokies. This is one of the least well-kept secrets in the Smokies. This 2 mile-round trip hike to a beautiful waterfall begins at the Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont and passes by places of historical and geological interest. We travel through several forest types to eat lunch by a 60-foot waterfall. We return by the same route. There are several pools of water for those that want to take a dip in the co