The Beauty of National Parks.

My wife loves visiting National Parks and well, although not as much as she, I do too.

We had intended on flying over to Rapid City, South Dakota and seeing Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills area.  We were also going to visit Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and sneek up into southeast Montana.  The flights tightened up last minute and so we decided to stay grounded and drive the six hour drive to the Smoky National Park.

We spent 3 days and two nights exploring Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains.  It was spring time and very beautiful with all of the blossoms.

We stayed at the Sidney James Mountain Lodge, which was nice.  I would stay there again.  It was close to a good Mexican restaurant and also a pancake house.

There are a lot of touristy things to do in the whole area but we concentrated on the park itself.

  The views form the summit, at the TN/NC border are amazing!  It is like looking at a painting.  We did a few of the easier hikes in the area because we had our little girl with us.  She did have fun on them  and loved this trip.  The park does not have an entrance fee because the road going through it is US highway 441 and is a necessary artery through the area.  You can enter the park from the east at Cherokee, North Carolina or from the west at Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Did you know that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the US?   It is also a UNESCO World Heritige Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.