We set out this morning to cross the state of South Carolina. It was already steamy hot when we left so we were looking forward to some cooler weather up in the Appalachians. However we had an important stop along the way – Congaree National Park. Our 35th National Park! Comprising nearly 11,000 hectares, Congaree National Park is the largest intact expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in the United States. Much of the park is floodplain and the trees are all happy to get their feet wet. We saw lizards and turtles who thrive in the marshy plain as we walked the boardwalk trail.
An hour or so after leaving the park we stopped at a Rest Area to eat left over pizza from last night as our lunch.
It was really exciting to finally spot the foothills of the Appalachians as we neared Asheville. Ever since New York the landscape had been so flat.
As we nearde Asheville Neil also decided we needed to take a detour via the airport. Out Chevy Malibu had an engine oil message that he wasnt happy about so we detoured via the airport to talk to the people at the Alamo counter. No problem! They were happy to give us an alternative car and after switching our luggage over we were on our way again. We checked in to the Hampton Inn for three nights. A luxury to spend three nights in one place on our trips!
Our first day in Asheville was spent driving away from Asheville! The plan for the day was to visit Great Smoky Mountain National Park, number 36 for us and the most visited park in the entire United States. Established in 1926, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is comprised of ridge upon ridge of seemingly endless forest on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s called the Smokies due to the ever-present morning fog and our route took us along the Newfound Gap Road which crosses the park from East to West. It’s not a long drive but it was so green and pretty. The leaves are still bright green with only a few trees hinting at a change of colour for fall. We stopped at the National Park Visitor center and then drove on up to the highest point on the park, Clingmans Dome. However, so was everyone else in the Smokies that day! As we stalled in a queue of cars negotiating the car park we wondered if we would have to give up, but Neil’s legendary parking good luck fairy waved her wand and we managed to grab a spot.
The climb to the spectacular viewing tower was TOUGH! It’s long and very steep and my heart was pounding, but eventually we made it to the top for the magnificent view of the Smokies all around us.
Near the very top of the climb we also crossed the famous Appalachian Trail, a 2,180+ mile long public trail that traverses the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia in the south to Maine in the north. Some extremely hardy people hike the trail in it’s entirety in one season, The Appalachian Trail Conservancy estimates there are over 3,000 attempts to traverse the entire trail each year, about 25% of which succeed. One of my favourite authors, Bill Bryson attempted to hike the trail with a friend and the experience is described in his book ( and later a movie) called “A Walk in the Woods” I was really excited to set foot on the trail at one of it’s highest points.
From Clingmans dome we started riving down out towards the Eastern end of the park which took us in to the extraordinary town of Gatlinburg. If you can thin of any example of trashy tourist sights… they have it in Gatlinburg! Bill Bryson decribed Gatlinburg as ” a shock to the system from whichever angle you survey it, but never more so than when you descend upon it from a spell of moist, grubby isolation in the woods.” There are at least two hige “Ripleys Belive It or Not” “museums” as well as an abundance of trashy shops, arcades, tattoo parlours, diners, bars, mini golf parks, and various “3D”, “5D” and even “7d” experiences! Amazing!
We stopped to visit Skylift Park – here the “Skylift” chair lift takes you up 1,800 feet above sea-level to the top of Crockett Mountain where the record-breaking Gatlinburg SkyBridge is located, plus , supposedly, the best views in all Gatlinburg. We held our breath and walked rapidly across the SkyBridge, the longest pedestrian cable bridge in North America. Neither Neil or I are good with heights and we were definitely out of our comfort zone but we were in Gatlinburg so we had to do it! The ride back down was a relief after that.
Back on ground level, we wandered into a couple of the Moonshine distilleries in the town. Of course, Tennessee is fanous for the moonshine that was distilled with great enthusiasm in illegal stills during the priod of the American prohibition. Now it is brewed with great enthusiasm and in a wide varety of flavours as a popular souvenir of the Tennessee mountains. I’d planned to try some at a tasting but the “tasting pits” were crowded with sweaty tourists throwing back little cups of 70 to 100 proof brews. Neil was driving so it was a no go for him, so we just watched and decided to give the tasting a miss. We did enjoy the Bluegrass band entertaining the crowd at the door of the distillery though.
We’d had enough of Gatlinburg by now so we set of back the Asheville. Dinner toght was a great little craft brewery called Hillman Beer . Asheville is littered with craft breweries, for several years in a row it was voted “Beer City USA”.
On our final day in Asheville I had booked us tickets to visit the really BIG draw of the town, Biltmore Estate. Biltmore is America’s largest home. This French Renaissance castle features 250 rooms, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces. In addition to the house, the 8,000-acre estate is home to forested trails and beautiful gardens, and also has the nation’s most-visited winery. George W. Vanderbilt created the estate in the 1890’s as a grand retreat in the North Carolina mountains. The estate officially opened to his friends and family on Christmas Eve 1895. Mr. Vanderbilt brought in Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed New Yorks Central Park, to design the gardens and trails.
We arrived earlier than our designated “house visit” time so that we could see the gardens. They did not disappoint! We were blown away by the scale of the place and the extent of the gardens and particularly by the fabulous conservatory.
At 11am we queud up and collected our audio guides for our tour of the house itself. It was very well managed wit a limited number of people allowed to enter at a time and the crowd moved smoothly thought the house. The interiors were amazing, full of old masters and impressionist paintings.
You reallu could have imagined yourself in a French Chateau… until you reached the section of the ground floor where Vanderbilt had installed a bowling alley and an indoor swimming pool!. The pool is left empty now as unfortunately it leaks!
After viewing the house we drove over to the part of the estate that used to be the village for the many people that ran the estate. Now it’s been converted to a shopping village, a hotel and a winery.
