We spent a couple of days in the Asheville, NC area. Our objective was the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The main road through the Great Smokies was closed due to a landslide that had occurred in January. We didn't get very far into the park, but we did spend time at the visitor center. The portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Great Smokey Mountain NP was also closed. The volunteer working at the visitor center said it was due to snow. The ranger at the VC said it was due to sequestration. Take your pick. We sure didn't see much snow but there was some ice evident. We assumed the volunteer hadn't yet gotten the memo.
So, we went out of the park and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed to Asheville. It was spectacular. This stretch also contained the highest point on the parkway, just over 6,000 feet. We had lots of views of why the Smokey Mountains were so named.
We briefly got off the parkway and made a side trip to see the "Cradle of Forestry." In school I remembered learning that the Biltmore Estate was the Cradle of Forestry. It is where Gifford Pinchot and others learned and honed their forestry knowledge and skills or so I vaguely remembered. However, Pinchot had already come and gone when Schenck was hired to replace him. Anyway, only a forester would be interested in this stuff. Although the site was closed until later in April, we were able to peek in through the fence and see some of the original buildings that made up the school. Kind of a neat journey for me.
On Sunday we traveled to our present location in northern VA. It was a travel day of 350 miles. The most we have traveled in one day so far. We chose our location because Shannon's lifelong dream was to visit Shenandoah NP. Something about a similarity of names... This is a view from the Skyline Parkway in Shenandoah NP looking into the Shenandoah Valley. The mountains were not as spectacular as the southern Appalachians, but there were plenty of great views.
As a kid growing up in PA, one of my dreams was to hike the Appalachian Trail. Here we are doing it! We went maybe 50 yards snow and all. Now I can say I hiked the Appalachian Trail. One has to dream and pursue that dream. OK. I can now check it off the really long list of things I need to do.
It's on to Gettysburg tomorrow. We'll be there a couple of days and then onto my brother. Even though we are no longer on an Adventure Caravan trip, we just can't stop doing what we have been doing for the last month and a half: being tourists. Ah, habits die slowly.
2 comments:
After PA, you better turn around and head back to FL. We had our spring/summer/fall last week, and now winter is returning. Do you have chains for that RV? TB
Evan here: Neat blog. We may have hiked about the same distance and even the same place back in the '90s. We were staying near DC with a friend, a former lodger in our home ['85-'86], who at the time was just finishing up a three year project with the Nature Conservancy, in which you can look up any sp. of mammal or bird [maybe also herps] and find out range, threatened status if applicable, and other neat stuff. The NC has spun it off as a separate entity. She is a computer whiz, BSU bachelor's in biology, U.MN. master's in communication [St. Paul campus], now works for Capella U. in Mpls. I see her most times I get down to the Cities. Anyway, she drove us down from Arlington, and we hiked the Trail. Actually, not knowing it at the time, I'd walked about a half mile of it many times in the early '40s, where it coincided with a gravel road N. of Pawling, NY, near where my aunt worked. The road is now paved and has many homes along it. Pawling is only 55 rail miles from Grand Central Station, which is commuting distance. It is now best known for Norman Vincent Peale & co.
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