Smokemont Campground Great Smoky Mountains In Our Small RV

We get the question all the time… why do you love to travel so much. As we begin to explore the NC side of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park we do our best to talk about it.

00:00 We hit the road again after 2 months at home
05:45 Arriving at Smokemont campground at GSMNP
10:12 Rainy morning at the campsite
11:42 Breakfast in Cherokee at Peter’s
13:47 Hiking to Mingo Falls
17:59 Campsite Cook: Mexican Beef ‘N Rice Skillet (recipe below)
23:59 Helping fellow camper with broken window
25:55 Our thoughts about camping at Smokemont Campground
27:59 A Look At Nature- The Elk are thriving in the NC mountains again

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〰️〰️ Recipe for Mexican Beef ‘N Rice Skillet
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Ingredients

1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1 c. white rice
1 15-oz. can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 c. corn (fresh, frozen, or canned)
1 4-oz. can green chilis
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tbsp. chili powder
kosher salt
2 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar and Monterey jack
Fresh cilantro, for garnish

Preparation Steps
1. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Add onion and cook 2 minutes, then add ground beef and cook until no longer pink, 6 minutes, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it browns. Drain fat.

2. Move beef to one side of skillet and add white rice to other side. Cook 2 minutes, then add fire-roasted tomatoes, black beans, corn, green chilis, cumin and chili powder. Season with salt and stir to combine, then pour over chicken broth.

3. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 20 minutes.

4. Top with cheddar and Monterey Jack and cover to let melt, 2 to 3 minutes.

5. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Notes

This Mexican Beef ‘N Rice Skillet is super family-friendly, and features spiced ground beef, flavorful rice, hearty beans, and lots of cheese

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hi I’m Owen and I’m L and this is Van tricking lifestyle our pup Maggie’s back here we’re back in the van I know we’re so excited it’s just such a freeing feeling to be back on the road again this week while we travel to the Great Smoky Mountains we’re going to try to share with you the essence of why we love to travel all while taking in the beauty of this national park that’s only a few hours from our home there’s hiking cooking and unexpected rain which is all part of Campus isn’t it and at the end and our look at nature we’ll share with you a few clips of why we chose to come here in the first place in the spring the elk but for now blue sign you want to [Music] stop like your fans getting you really good look at that boy get it funny we travel up north and they call them Travel Centers but here in the South we refer to them as rest areas rest areas or rest stops yeah so that brings us to the first reason we love to travel which is we feel like we get to rest more while we’re on the road and I’m not really sure why it’s just because maybe it’s because we don’t have all those chores that we need to do at home and always feeling like there’s something to do all the time yeah so so when we leave there’s this we pull out and it doesn’t take long before we both kind of look at each other and there’s just yeah take a deep breath because you know you’re you’re working hard to get everything ready for the trip and packing and planning and all that so there is a kind of a a sigh of relief when you actually get in the van and get started might be opposite for some people when you travel you know traveling may be the most stressful thing that you do but brush I think it’s a different way of traveling too yeah [Music] [Music] one hour later that’s one of your favorite stores isn’t it it is I think it was an hour and a half maybe hour and 20 minutes really that’s all right give me my well I got one pair of shoes I need to show you my shoes though Lyn said she’s not going to let me wear them out are they ugly they’re not ugly you’re holding boxman I’ll show everybody they’re going to see them anyway look at those shoes right there yeah that might be ugly if ugly is what you’re going for I love my shoes I feel good I don’t really like the way they look I don’t really care about stuff like that anymore and this is our typical day of traveling you know we’re just taking our time looks like we get to our campsite but since it’s kind of rainy we don’t care about that L saw a barbecue uh truck here we’re going to go do that now [Music] few more reasons we love to travel been able to go shopping at different places and you know I’m I’m a woman I like to shop a lot of women don’t but I do like to shop at different places and I love shoes I don’t have a lot but yeah she didn’t have like three closet fulls or anything but she does like to get a few pairs of shoes and every now and then I’ll find something I like another reason we love to travel is just what we did there finding unique places to just stop and eat even if it’s just a food truck like that yeah and it was we wanted something quick you know we don’t really like fast food so that was perfect it was perfect we have another hour and 15 minutes to get to our destination today we don’t have to cook dinner yeah hey look at this got my new shoes I can ride in you found some merils why didn’t you get the merils I don’t know I love these well you can get at the light use the left two lanes to merge onto i26 west [Music] time certainly beautiful through here [Music] so one of the reasons we really wanted to come here to smoke Mountain was to get pictures and to get up close and see the elk that live on this mountain range and we’ve only been here for about 2 minutes we’ve already seen one herd over here beside of the river and now there’s one cow or female that’s up here by the road that Lynn’s getting some pictures of now how cool is that Co let see pretty neat oh wow wow she’s [Music] beautiful [Music] on I got you a map here I asked if I wanted one and I said no and I thought wait a minute she’s going to send me back can to get one so I got a map good and we’re on b28 let’s go there now no signal whatsoever 28 b28 b28 b 28 B good I think Maggie’s already asking to go she is is yeah that’s her favorite thing [Music] so so Springtime hasn’t really uh gotten here yet in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee and so this is pretty much a shoulder season in fact a lot of this Campground many of the loops are closed right now they’re not even open what that means is there are a lot of places like this where you can go and experience well pretty much having a campground to yourself now the loop we’re in looks like it’s pretty crowded but it’s one of the reasons we love to travel because when you can choose when you can go it really helps to uh make the most of places like this [Music] Maggie would say that one of the reasons she likes to travel if she could talk I have to do a lot of talking for her is would be all the places she gets to go for walks another reason we love to travel is all the wildlife we get to see while we’re out here whether it’s a little bitty squirrel or an elk I know pretty or a huge pated woodpecker like we just saw that was pretty cool that guy was actually on the ground because there’s just nobody around here right that doesn’t usually happen usually they’re up in the Tre but we kind of been following on this walk so he keeps flying in front of us and he keeps catching up with him but yeah we’ve seen turkeys on the road today yeah L said we need to try to see a fish in the Stream yeah and that would be five things we’ve seen Wildlife related today don’t think we’re going to do that we did just see a crow but I don’t think a crow counts does it I don’t think so everything else does though this the thing you get out here and it’s so peaceful and so quiet and you get to see things that you just can’t see even if you live in a pretty good place that has really uh has a lot of wildlife you see more when you’re out here like this you look for it more too I guess that’s true over here and look at the water Lyn would say like our friend Sharon Rudolph wild flowers are probably a reason she likes to travel too I do like wild flowers let’s see if we can see a fish out there you’re the Eagle Eye you should be looking no good note one the things we don’t love about traveling rainy nights and rainy days when there’s no connectivity we literally lie like in bed last night from about 7:00 until we fell asleep about 9:00 listening to our audible book neither one of us can remember what chapter we last heard before we fell asleep I think we both fell asleep at different times but I think the plan for this morning is different than we thought it was going to be turn the seat around and take the uh Curtains Down and head into Cherokee find a little connectivity and see how long this rain is going to last because when we chose to come up here there was not any rain in the forecast for today until about 2:30 or 3: this afternoon guess things change so there’s an outer is there an outer one yeah yeah it’s crowded you can get the close to tell me first of all tell me how close I can come to this big rock up front lot of times she does that and she never moves her fingers this what it looks like out of the back mirror what do you think kind on the bank right here but we’re underneath the rock but we don’t have much back there but I don’t think anybody hit us okay a subscriber last time told us about a place called Peters great breakfasts so we plan to ride our we plan to ride our bikes up up here but as you can see we’re rain we’re not going to do that so we’ll just go put our name in probably have to wait for a while how long do we have to sit in the rain we’re not sitting in the rain just our feet feet 30 minutes wait there’s two rocking chairs over there you get those 30 minutes what they said but yeah you want to do the rocking chair to see we can wait for a long time now can’t we glad y Mo you did you know what you want small glass of water got you got you do you’all want plain pancakes I forgot to ask where you could do blueberry peon chocolate chip or just plain I’ll just I’ll be right back thank you here’s Maggie’s breakfast what do you think you like eggs eggs and bacon and then right here is pancakes it’s dessert we do you like your pancakes okay [Music] continue on chery Co Road for one and half miles yeah I know look at that no access to Mingo Falls your GPS is wrong that is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen your GPS is wrong no access to Mingo Falls okay that is so cool wonder how many people have gotten lost because of that I’m sure a lot since they put up that big sign thank you that sign I’m glad we got that on film Domingo Falls okay so I’m going to take this off if you haven’t figured it out yet Lyn and I are going to Mingo Falls all the rain we’ve been getting the locals here say that this is a perfect time to visit this because head Northeast on big Co Road should be a lot of water coming down continue on big Cove Road for 1 and2 miles okay Mingo Falls next right there it is I can’t go that fast I know come on let’s go good girl [Music] a oh oh oh wow [Music] [Music] [Music] what do you [Music] thinkful who would have thought this is a huge waterfall you can hear it from a long ways off but then when you get here it’s just spe spectacular to see in person Maggie’s always looking for a boondocking spot so if you if you come here and we recommend that you do this is an awesome hike but if you come here just know if it’s been raining it’s going to be slick so just be careful wait a minute look at [Applause] Maggie pretty slick buddy come back this way the you have four [Music] drive you can get water in the van come on come on come on come on you can get water in the van [Music] tonight outside on the cooktop we’re going to do one pot Mexican beef and rice in the skillet let’s get started first thing is I need to light this thing up and heat it up then we’re going to cook some onions next we’re going to add hamburger now we’re just cooking down the hamburger we’re going to let that get good and brown not completely done though because we’re going to add some more ingredients and let it cook even longer but do want to get rid of most of the pink here and we’re just mixing the onions and this hamburger to make a good little base for this recipe by the way the recipe will be down below in the description if you guys want to make it when you’re camping just slicing up some cilantro for garnish put everything open for you everything all the spices like wrapped out for you the best wind shed so now helping out okay the beef is just about done the next thing we do is we’re going to add in the rice we’ll let that sit over here for about 2 minutes while it cooks and then we’ll add the rest of the ingredients so now we’re just moving this around a little bit so it can get a little little bit toasted getting mixed in with the hamburger already in a minute that’s not going to matter next up fire roasted tomatoes then black beans fresh cut corn Del Monte next we have green chilies okay so now we’re just going to mix everything together I’m pretty sure I’m from the south pretty sure I’m getting ready to say I’m fixing to make a mess I’m getting ready to make a mess I’m just telling you incorporate all this boy this is going to be good the smell gosh next we have a tablespoon of cumin and a tablespoon of chili powder if you don’t like he’s spicy you may want to cut back on that a little bit I’m going to put a little salt in okay so now let’s just get all this Incorporated in together it’s starting to smell like a Mexican meal man oh man okay so the recipe calls for two cups of chicken broth I’m going to add about half of a cup right now since everything else was pretty liquidy I know this is going to add some flavor but we’ll add about half of this and set that aside so if we need it we’ll have it and now let’s stir everything up again this is a point where you realize you wish you had a bigger Skillet now we’ll put the lid on it’s going to sit here and simmer I’m going to turn it down just a little it’s going to sit here and simmer now for 20 minutes okay it’s been 10 minutes hey that’s perfect timing there the 20 minutes we did put a little bit more of the chicken broth in there and now we’re going to drop a little bit of cheese in there we’re using Kobe Jack and Monteray jack cheese on top of this Mexican meal let it melt the cheese we’ll be ready to eat I have turned the heat off let take the lid off and take a look look at that man man man okay so let’s see if I can dip a little of this out yum all right how pretty that is man in all right let’s see how it is with sour cream good mhm if you ever camped in you already know this but another thing we love about traveling and camping in NV the camaraderie of meeting people who were just like you last night you saw us cook the Mexican Skillet meal and we had enough to feed an army and these guys got in last night with a broken window really late at night and they hadn’t eaten we had a lot left over so we heated it up and took it to them and it started a conversation and that’s how friendship start this morning they’re trying to fix the reason that they were like getting in which is their window uh was stuck going down last night it’s an older van he’s had it for a long time it’s awesome but you know what he kind of stuck so he’s saying you have anything plastic that’s clear that we can use so Lynn is donating some baggies and they’re building a out of clear tape a plastic window to put in there the good thing is we’re always all trying to solve something if you have an issue when you’re out at a campground like this all you got to do is say wow does anybody know how to and there’ll be five or six old men around just just like that because they want to help there’s a camaraderie that you feel and we love that it’s like a really good job the window that glad built that’s awesome you’ll be able to see the camper life you know I know it is is it yeah yeah at home you go I got to get that fixed and out here you just going to just screw live with it until we get home yeah I don’t need to spend about 6 hours trying to I know stay special tooling and all that I know hey we’ll see you at Elkmont okay yeah safe travels I don’t even know there’s two right there this one goes all the way across she okay is it cool Maggie I guess finally one of the things it has to be one of the best things about traveling in an RV like this where else can you walk across trees that have been sewn like this over rivers and streams and just sit here and have your morning walk like that it’s it’s the best thing isn’t it especially for Maggie it’s awesome so we’ve had a wonderful time here at smokem even though I don’t know the weather hasn’t been perfect has it there’s today yeah it is perfect today there’s a lot of things that we wanted to do we weren’t able to do but you know there’s always next time what was your favorite thing about smoke Mall um I guess all the water here I mean and being able to to sit at your campsite and hear Rushing Water all the time this Trail is like right outside the campground on the dside and it’s a loop and I think it’s like. 3 miles or something very short but it takes you through nature it takes you over the stream and like these big old logs that you know that’s a huge tree if you think about it that goes all the way across this River so I guess that’s my favorite thing and you know there’s no hookups here you’re out in the woods you’re probably not going to get any kind of cell phone signal or Starling signal because you are in the woods but you know sometimes you kind of need that yeah it helps in it my favorite thing I said it last night the elk that we saw oh yeah being able to come to the mountains of North Carolina and see elk that have been reintroduced in this Cherokee area yeah that’s a special thing for both of us it is so we hope you’ve enjoyed this little look at smokem Campground and why we love to travel see you next time [Music] [Music] [Music]