Blogs from Great Smoky Mountains Parkway, Tennessee, United States, North America - page 4

Fredricksburg has become somewhat of a tourist attraction due to the number of Civil War battles fought both in the town and in the surrounding countryside. Over 100, 000 Americans died in the immediate area surrounding Fredricksburg through the Civil War. As a bit of a Civil War nerd, it was time to inflict some revenge on Fiona for all those pointless hours spent standing outside of a changing room holding clothes, or the many hours spent watching her try on shoes. So with little remorse, I inflicted about seven hours of battlefield tours upon her. Unfortunately, she actually enjoyed it. The State Parks had done such a great job of preserving the battlefield sites and presenting information that it was really quite easy to understand what had happened and picture it all happening on the ... read more

We wake up to find that we just "happen" to be a hop-skip & jump from the Great Smokey Mountains. So we go...... Trevor had heard about the bear attack here a month ago, right before we left on our trip and he's not a big fan of heights, so he wasn't thrilled. We came in through the Tenn side and had to pass all the tourist stuff. I've never been here before and was very suprised to find just how tourist-y this place was. Shouldn't have been suprised. We had read that this was the busiest National Park in the country and about twice the amount of people visit the Smokey then visit the Grand Canyon, which is number two. We opened our trusty National parks book to see what we "had" to see and ... read more

Drove from Boone NC to the Great Smoky Mountains and stayed at Elkmont Campground.... read more

Hello again! After about 500 miles of driving (mostly Jim driving and me sleeping) and four states (Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee) we arrived in the beautiful Smoky Mountains for 3 nights and three whole days of hiking and camping bliss. Day One: We arrived at Pigeon Forge, a nightmare! It's a gaudy city surrounded by the beauty of the mountains. It's a redneck wannabee Las Vegas on acid, with more Christianity and no gambling. There, surrounded by the beauty of the mountains, you are in an ADHD nightmare. You cannot even enjoy the natural scenery because everywhere you look there is a huge neon sign, big buildings with dinosaurs crashing through them, dancing bears, flashing lights, and dinner theater clips displayed on huge jumbotrons.. including the one for the newest Christian dinner theater hit... ... read more

I had a few hours to kill after leaving the Biltmore so decided to drive to the Smoky Mountain National Park since it was so close and see a little of it. Did not have a lot of time so mainly stuck to the road. Stopped at the observations points along the way for some photos and headed back shortly after crossing the state line sign halfway through the Park. Unfortunately, the Park wasn't as green yet this time of year as I was hoping so that dampered my photo taking a bit. It was also suprisingly clear so didn't get to see that heavy "fog" that makes the mountains look smoky. The Park is home to many Rivers and Creeks. There was lots of water running this time of year so little waterfalls all around ... read more