This weekend Cosby is the place to be in The Smoky Mountains!

Cosby in the Park will be taking place again this weekend in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and everyone big and small will have a great time with music, guided hikes, and entertainment, demonstrations and kids activities and the price for all of this can be beaten - it's all free!

Cosby is one of the quietest sections of the Great Smoky Mountains national park and is about 10 miles from the City of Gatlinburg off of 321 and boasts a large beautiful picnic area where most of the children's activates and demonstrations are taking place, an outdoor amphitheater, some of the best hiking trails in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and one of the prettiest cascades/waterfalls in the park: Hen Wallow Falls.

Listen to the live Appalachian music playing in the amphitheater against the backdrop of huge trees and a deep green forest bursting with spring wildflowers, babbling creeks and streams with old fashioned log footbridges and water splashing over moss covered boulders and forming small waterfalls and reflecting pools.

The free Cosby in the Park performances all take place in the outdoor amphitheater throughput the day and I can tell you have seen every one of these great musicians perform before and all of them are excellent.

Here is the schedule of musical events taking place at Cosby in the Park:

• 10:00 am - 11:00 am Lost Mill String Band
• 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm The Green Family Band
• 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm David McClary and Mountain Strings
• 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Boogertown Gap

One of the best wildflower walks is the 1 mile nature trail right behind the Cosby picnic areas and amphitheater. Walk past along deep lush growth, beautiful wildflowers some growing on moss covered logs, and the stone walls and foundations from the early settlers who one lived in what is now the Cosby section of the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

At 12:00 pm enjoy a guided 1 hour 1 mile stroll on this beautiful trail with Morgan Briggs and Matthew Briggs. To join this hike, meet at the Amphitheater. Miss the guided hike? feel free to explore it on your own.

Another guided moderate hike will take place from 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm and will conducted by Shane and Judy McGaha and Alma Williamson offering a walking tribute to one of the local heroes of Cosby Ella V. Costner which will end up at her grave. To join the hike, meet at Cosby picnic area pavilion.

To really get the most out of this hike you should attend the talk given by Sheila Evans from 1:00 pm - 1:30 pm in the Cosby picnic area on Ella V. Costner, known as the "The Poet Laureate of the Smokies".

If you don't want to go on the hike you can stay in the picnic are and attended an Introduction to Beekeeping given by Charlie Monday and the Art or Dowsing from 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm.

There will be plenty of ongoing demonstrations all day in the picnic area:

• Introduction to Beekeeping - Jon and Sherry Holt
• Blacksmithing - Clayton Sharp
• Quilting - Maria Holloway and Ellen Ogle
• Blacksmithing and Blade Making - Len Landrum
• "Old Timey Stuff" - Morgan and Matthew Briggs will display items of daily living from the past
• Cosby History Exhibit-Judy and Shane McGaha

The kid's activities will go on all day from 10 am to 4 pm in the picnic area as well. Children who come to Cosby in the park will enjoy fun activities such as sack races, old-timey toys, games and face painting thanks to Carolyn Templeton, Dianne Goss, Robin Goddard, and Gay Thompson.

For those who wish to listen to Mountain stories in words and music by Kathy and Mike Gwinn, attend the "Hills and Hollows" stories from 1 pm - 2 pm.

Other activities for Cosby in park will take place at the amphitheater stage

• 11:00 am - 11:30 am Introductions/Dedication of Event
• 11:30 am -12 pm Duay O'Neil "Under the Apple Trees" presentation
• 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Curtis and Lynn Osteen

For the best deal on family friendly entertainment in the Smoky Mountains be sure to attend the Cosby in the Park free celebration this Saturday May 16th from 10 am to 4 pm. Come early stay late - you will have fun!

Cosby is from 1/2 and hour to an hour for cabins rentals in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.