Back Home100- Year Anniversary of National Parks
2016 marks the centennial year of the legislation that led to the creation of our national parks. Here in the Smoky Mountains we are very fortunate to have two of the most visited parks in the nation. We have the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the largest area of wilderness in the USA east of the Rocky Mountains. The GSMNP has over 800 miles of hiking trails. If you love to visit waterfalls, the GSMNP has dozens of waterfalls to explore and photograph. Also, admission to the park is FREE! When Tennessee and North Carolina donated land for the park, it was with the stipulation that no entry fee or road toll could ever be charged. The photo above is of a steep, craggy peak just north of Newfound Gap on the Tennessee side of the park. I took this photo last Sunday.
The Blue Ridge Parkway has 4 highway access points in Haywood County. In fact, the highest elevation point on the entire parkway is located in Haywood County. One of my favorite parts of the parkway is a road called the Heintooga Spur Road. This road begins just a few miles north on the parkway from the Hwy 19 entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Soco Gap, just past Maggie Valley. The paved spur road will take you to a campground, and a nice high-altitude picnic area. There is a col-de-sac at the end of the road by the picnic area. Look for the sign that is the entrance to the Heintooga- Round Bottom One Way Road. This is a 28 mile narrow, winding mountain road (more like a driveway) leading down the mountain to Round Bottom and on into Cherokee. It takes about 1 hour (more if you take lots of pictures) to travel down to Cherokee. The road is closed in the Winter, but usually opens sometime in May.
If you have always wanted to live in the mountains, come on up. Adventures are waiting and time is fleeting!
