Smokies Road Trip

Road trip stops

Shenandoah national park

After dropping all three dogs off at the boarding places we continued on to Shenandoah, NP. We arrived late at Big meadows campground and set up the tent for one night. Shenandoah is a long and skinny NP with Skyline Drive going the whole length. Big meadows was about half way down the Skyline Drive, be careful of deer at night, we must have seen 40+ deer on the drive in. Big meadows was beautiful, had clean bathrooms and plenty of first come first serve campsites. For $30/night we couldn’t beat it!
In the morning we hiked dark hollow falls, a great short hike to get the blood flowing with a rewarding view of the falls. Then we continued along Skyline Drive stoping at many of the outlooks.

Natural bridge state park

Continuing south, a short distance from the highway was Natural Bridge state park. A $9 entrance fee and we walked the 2 mile out and back trail to the waterfall at the end, passing under the 215 foot natural bridge about 1/4th of a mile in. This was one of my favorite attractions of the trip and most amazing natural structures!

Winston-Salem, nc

Visiting my best friend and her family in NC, we did some of our favorite things; hiked, breweries, and lots of catching up! Our favorite brewery was Wise Man Brewing!
Bennett and I took a day trip to Charolette and visited Hendricks Motorsports & the NASCAR hall of fame to knock those spots off his bucket list! If anyone is ever in Charolette, the hall of fame and simulator is a must see!

Great smoky mountains, nc, smokemont campground

Camping in Smokemont campground was a central location on the NC side of the NP. We tented for 3 nights in spread out camp sites each having a tent pad, picnic table, and lantern post. Being 3.6 miles from the Oconaluftee visitors center and entrance, it was just before the US route 441 road closure gates that we learned closed completely for storms, wind, ice, snow, and accidents. We saw numerous elk grazing for food in the fields of the visitors center.
The weather wasn’t the most cooperative when we were tenting, we arrived at night and got the tent up before it started raining, then rained through the next day. We had ourselves a slow morning and spent the afternoon at the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in the city of Cherokee that boarders that side of the park on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
The next day when the rain started to let up but drizzled all day, we drove up US 441 towards Clingman’s dome which was socked in with fog, attempted to hike Alum Cave trail but there was not a single parking spot even along the road, which lead us to hike the Chimney Tops trail. After making it back to camp and hiking the quick smokemont nature trial and drying off we went down to the visitors center to attempt to see an elk which we succeeded in!

Great smoky mountains, tn, townsend cabin

We decided to be bougie after a few days of camping and spend a few more $$ and rent a Cabin on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains. We were closer to the Cades Cove area of the park and the drive around that was slow but beautiful seeing white tail deer and black bears along with preserved farm structures. Driving through Townsend TN we saw signs for Tuckaleechee Caverns and decided to check them out and we are so glad we did! The Cavern tour was about an hour and a half of guided walking through the cave learning about stalagmites, stalactites, columns, and stone waterfalls. The furthest underground we traveled was 300 feet at the end next to a 210 foot underground waterfall.

Gatlinburg, tn

Less than an hour away from the National Park is Gatlinburg TN, a more touristy spot with many shops, cideries, and distilleries that of course we checked out! One night was perfect for us walking up the main strip and back down to the Margaritaville Hotel. We stopped at Ole Smoky Moonshine, Tennessee Shine Company, Sugarlands Distilling, Tennessee Cider Company, Tennessee Stud Cider, and the Daiquiri Shack. We couldn’t pass up the $5 VIP tastings at these companies!

lancaster, pa

On our way home we broke it into two days stopping in Lancaster PA. We picked this spot to stop at Lancaster Archery Supply, a place Bennett has always wanted to go to and then had breakfast at Shady Maple Smorgasbord in the morning. On our way to pick up Cooper from my Dad’s we stopped at Sally’s Apizza in New Haven CT.

necessities we were so glad we had & link so you can get them for your next camping trip!