Verdant forests, mountain streams, cool temperatures, and yes, smoky mountains. Quite a drastic change from a week ago!! This photo from taken from Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the Smokies at 6,643 feet. This national park is different from others because the land was purchased by state legislatures and private individuals and then donated to the federal government since the government was not allowed to buy land for national park use. Much of the early work done in the park was by the CCC.
After leaving the Smokies, we had to do some fancy navigation to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The southern section has several tunnels that we would not clear. Not wanting to leave the top of our rv behind, we got on the parkway at Balsam Gap and drove to Asheville, NC. The parkway is a narrow two lane road that John managed like a pro! Turn after turn we saw mountains around us and valleys where they converged. This drive was different from the Smokies where we went over the mountains. Most of the time on the parkway was spent traveling along the ridge so we were up high. We were surprised to see all the evergreens. It seemed as if we should be much further north with the number of them on the mountains.
Our day ended in Virginia at Stony Fork campground. Some of our best drives have been on the smaller roads where we can really see the countryside. We passed some lovely rolling hills in a rural area this evening. We are back to the basics for camping tonight though (well minus the rv for sleeping and the red box movie). We have seen lots of fireflies this trip and while cooking on the fire we were serenaded by a whiporwill.
A little aside.. we realized we passed into Tennessee at least five times in the past couple of times from various borders. We left it for the last time this evening--at least for this trip!
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