The Great Smoky Mountains - Part I

Up until this year, almost all of my camping journey's have meant that I must go west.   The west is where the wild is at.  It is where one can still feel alone and experience what America once was.   So this time I challenged my personal status quo and headed east.

Cindy and I spent our 11 year anniversary hiking under some of the best fall colors among the southern hardwoods.  We visited the Blue Ridge Parkway, gazing upon smoke filled hills and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, hiking along rivers and waterfalls.  The park was established in 1934 and remains today as the only national park without a visitor fee.  Those crafty southerners carved a deal to ensure that the land they gave up could at least be visited without a cost.  Fall in the east is not a place to go to find solitude, but rather for pure beauty. It does not disappoint.  

The Great Smoky Mountains:

Hardwoods best colors.

Tom Branch Falls off the Deep Creek Trail.

Bradley Fork Creek

Evening light off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The view from the other side of Juney Whank Falls.

The Last light on the Blue Ridges of the Appalachians.

Enjoy!