Today was another day in the Great Smoky Mountains. I spent quite a bit of time deciding where. The park is huge, and much of it is located away from roads. I eventually chose the Roaring Fork auto tour, because it has a wide variety of experiences in a small area. The first challenge with Roaring Fork is finding it. The road first goes to Gatlinburg. This town is a miniature Pigeon Forge, with a similar range of cheesy entertainment and shopping options. The big difference with Pigeon Forge is that all of this is wrapped in pseudo-Bavarian architecture. The town wants to look like a quaint village in the Alps. The issue for me is that it’s not in the Alps, it’s a tourist trap in eastern ... read more

Today, I see yet more waterfalls. There is a distinctive difference between these falls and the ones from yesterday. With two exceptions, all of the falls yesterday were located near roads. Most of the waterfalls for today are located along trails deep in the forest. They require long hikes to reach. Local enthusiasts tend to prefer these falls, simply because the work needed means that only outdoor enthusiasts ever see them. These beauties must be earned. Lower Whitewater Falls The first waterfall I saw is the highest waterfall in South Carolina. Remember that the last waterfall yesterday was Upper Whitewater Falls. Lower Whitewater Falls is nearly as high. It takes much more effort to reach. For starters, the trail head is located on land owned by Duke Power as part of the url=ht... read more

Today is my first official day exploring the southern Appalachian Mountains. They are the highest mountains east of the Mississippi River, and many people consider then nearly as beautiful as the Rockies. These mountains were settled by hard-scrapple pioneer families, mostly from Scotland and Ireland. Their descendents are still here. Mountain Driving Before describing the journey, I need to describe the driving. It’s different enough from driving that most people are used to, and difficult enough, that my guidebook has a section on it. Roads in this region do everything possible except go in a flat line. They curve, constantly. They go up and down, constantly. The grades are often very steep. This region is a very good place to destroy both transmissions and brakes. ... read more

Stone Mountain I spent most of today at Stone Mountain. I first encountered it last Saturday for the laser show. Stone Mountain is a granite monolith, the largest in the world. This means the entire mountain is a single block of granite stuck in an area of rolling hills. There are much larger granite blocks in the world (think of the Sierra Nevada) but they are all part of mountain ranges. Stone Mountain stands alone. The north face of the mountain is nearly vertical. It contains the world’s largest relief carving, Confederate heroes Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Ston... read more