After leaving Shenandoah National Park (NP) in Virginia our next destination was New River Gorge NP in West Virginia. This was the first time in a number of weeks we weren’t heading east, and marked a new phase of our roadtrip, where our general direction is South and West.
New River Gorge National Park
The New River Gorge NP is known for its large sandstone cliffs, deep gorges and mixed forests that follow you guessed it, the New River. Compared to Shenandoah, where we had definitely missed the peak of the autumn/fall colours, the Oak and Maples in New River Gorge were still extremely vibrant and the leaves had only just started to drop.
We managed to hit all three of the must see areas of the park in one jam-packed day. We saw the 3rd highest bridge in the US and hiked a nearby trail called endless wall, that follows the sheer edge of the gorge and looked down upon the changing colours. We then hit a different section of the park, famous for its numerous overlooks that peer out to an oxbow bend in the river, finishing with a scenic drive to Sandstone falls.
Driving Along the Blue Ridge Parkway
After completing our side trip to New River Gorge, we headed back to the Appalachian Mountains and joined the Blue Ridge Parkway. This ~470 mile road connects Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. While we didn’t have time to complete the entire road we did one of the most picturesque sections from the town of Blowing Rock to Asheville.
This was an area of North Carolina that recently got hit by hurricane Helene which was the biggest to hit the area in 19+ years. Although we arrived ~6 weeks after it had hit, the clean up efforts were still on-going and the damage from fallen trees to destroyed homes and business’ was very evident.
We stopped along the drive to explore Grandfather Mountain. We hadn’t quite anticipated having to paying the $26 each to drive the 2.5 miles to the top but when you’re in the que of cars at the entrance booth you kind of have no option… (once again a little more prep from the Bischcons wouldn’t have hurt). But there was much more here than we thought. We walked over a swinging bridge, which is over 1mile above sea level. Saw a Bear, Cougar, Bald Eagles and an Elk in a small habitat/zoo and our favourite seeing a filming location from Forrest Gump. It was a tight mountain curve, that Forrest runs around for a brief second during his running phase. Having time on our hands, we tried to recreate the scene ourselves, however not having signal to google this beforehand, whilst it is the correct corner, the camera angle was completely wrong…
That evening, we found a fantastic restaurant that was nearly all gluten free (Not always easy to find any options in these small rural towns). Safe to say Mel was pretty happy - hats off to Coyote Kitchen in Boone, NC, for having appetizers, mains and desserts all available gluten free on their menu!
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
We were excited to make it the Great Smoky Mountains as it is the most visited National Park in the country, and is split between the states of North Carolina and Tennessee. Even though we arrived midweek, we had forgotten we were heading into a 3 day weekend (Veterans Day) so the park and the surrounding town we stayed in, that was very close to Dollywood (Dolly Parton theme/waterpark) were packed! To avoid the worst of the crowds we tried to hit some of the longer and/or harder climbs that were slightly less busy. We hiked Andrew’s Bald, Abrams Falls and our two favorites were:
Alum Cave Bluffs to Mount LeConte - An 11 mile round trip, climbing over 3,000 Ft. This was a tough one and the first time in a long time that the weather wasn’t on our side. We had quickly climbed out of the valley bottom and into the clouds. Visibility was low, so there were unfortunately no views, but our legs had a great workout!! At the summit we encountered super strong gusty winds that felt like they were going to blow you off the mountain. We were so thankful we had taken plenty of layers as it was humid when we left the car but very cold at the top!
Clingmans Dome - A 1 mile out and back that climbed ~300 Ft to the top of the 3rd highest mountain in the eastern US and the highest peak in the park. It was short but very steep but had great 360’ views from the top of the observation tower that looks like a concrete UFO.
On reflection, this unfortunately just wasn’t our favourite park. Although nice, we have been spoiled on this trip to epic views and empty parks. Fighting crowds to get parked for a hike or being sat in crawling traffic to complete the ‘must do’ scenic drives wasn’t enjoyable. We’d put this park firmly in a category of worth visiting if your in the area, but maybe not worth a special trip. Our recommendation for Mammoth Cave is very different…
Mammoth Cave National Park
This place was absolutely awesome! The largest cave system in the world with over 420 miles of surveyed passage ways. We had to book ranger led tours to enter the caves so it was a 2 hour Domes and Dripstones that caught our eye. Little did we realize that they had opened up the historic entrance cave for free for Veterans Day, so we could do an extra unguided tour by entering there too! It is incredible under there… just miles of caves meandering under the surface! Small spaces, very dark, but opening up into underground rooms. We loved it! We also had a lovely camp site in a quiet and peaceful location although having crossed back into Central time, sunset seemed to come even earlier so pitch black by about 5:08pm! Ended the next morning with some lovely trails above ground viewing sink holes, overlooks and river views. Would highly recommend this park, the only challenge would be getting to Kentucky…
What’s Next?
The next National Park on our list is Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas with a stop in Memphis on the way. I mean who doesn’t want to say they’ve been ‘walking in Memphis…’
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