Bryson City Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

After hiking back to the car and resting in its air-conditioned confines, Mar and I headed onto our next outdoorsy adventure.  Since it was just after noon, I thought we had plenty of time and sunlight to make it to our next destination.  So we back tracked on US-74 to Asheville to meet up with I-40.  From the I-40 we took Exit 27 to catch US-23/US-74/US-19 toward Waynesville/Clyde/Atlanta/Maggie Valley/Franklin/Murphy, also known as the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway.  ...

The objective this day was to ride the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The line operates an excursion train through the mountains along the Nantahala River. To get to Bryson City, where we would board the train, we followed US 19 west from Asheville. This route took us through Maggie Valley, a center for winter sports, and then directly through the Cherokee Reservation. The highway through the resevation is mountainous, with roadside billboards whose messages abo...