2016 Eastern Trips Highlights.

[iowahiker]

Our winter project is to organize (deleting many) our thousands of pictures from the past year when we stay on the road as much as possible. We traveled east twice in April and June in 2016 which is our normal routine in the Georgia to New York mountain corridor. Our first trip was to hike the Appalachian trail and explore north and south of Great Smokey Mountains NP in Tennessee and North Carolina. Our second trip was hiking the AT and exploring Virginia between Roanoke and Shenandoah NP. Clouds, haze, and rain combined with a small sensor camera make for poor pictures when traveling east but here are a few highlights (while hiking in the east we always say to come back, while looking at the pictures we always wonder why we went):

April picture taken on top of Smokey Mountains NP in the early morning at 25 deg with a 35 mph wind, both of which reduced eastern haze. This is Clingmans Dome tower top view which is a half mile hike from the parking and can be strenuous because of the altitude.

Early April view from the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the North Carolina highlands southeast of Great Smokey Mountains NP.

Audie Murphy memorial on a mountain ridge top near the Appalachian Trail and near where his plane crashed west of Roanoke, VA. A road comes up on the east side of the mountain to within a half mile of the memorial while we hiked up from the west side on the AT. We arrived at the memorial on Memorial Day 2016 by chance as this was the next day hiking segment.

View of the country around the memorial from a viewpoint near the memorial:

Two Blue Ridge Parkway views near the northern end in Virginia:

Roadside view along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah NP in Virginia (the flowering shrub is Mountain Laurel):

And the highlight picture for an iowahiker trip from Cataloochee campground on the east side of Great Smokey Mountains NP:

And we are looking forward to our return in 2017 (despite the pictures).

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Have never camper in that area but have driven through many years ago.
Liked the shot of Audi Murphys memorial.
Once long time ago while driving a truck to pick up sweet potatoes in Golden Tx,I drove through his hometown.
The AT is such a beautiful area.
Frank

 

[ski3pin]

Mr. Iowa, it is so nice to see how you are enjoying so much of the outdoors across North America! Keep it up. Your post also hit me with memories because my Mom had lunch with Audie Murphy at the Brown Derby in Hollywood and a photo of the two of them was one of her favorite mementos.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Mr. Iowa, it is so nice to see how you are enjoying so much of the outdoors across North America! Keep it up. Your post also hit me with memories because my Mom had lunch with Audie Murphy at the Brown Derby in Hollywood and a photo of the two of them was one of her favorite mementos.

That's cool Ski.Something to keep hold of.
Frank

 

[PaulT]

Depending on your schedule, you might consider Roan Mountain near Asheville for rhodendron, laurel, and azaleas. Stalking Light likely has good suggestions more current than my memories of several decades ago.
https://www.romanticasheville.com/roan_rhododendron.htm

Paul

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

A nice photo essay of the region, thanks for sharing! I hope to see it one of these days!

 

[takesiteasy]

Thanks for your report. We are going to head east one of these years.

 

[iowahiker]

Thanks. The Audie Murphy memorial was the inspiration for this post given both the unique location and significance and we are surprised to find WTW member connections to Audie Murphy. We did reach Roan Mountain during this trip because the campgrounds just north of Great Smokey Mountains NP were closed while Roan Mountain SP was fully operational in mid-April. One Roan highlands day hike was 100% rain and the others cloudy. A couple of pictures:

The AT is routed on the left of the Roan highlands ridge top:

AT in the woods near the ridge crest of Roan highlands:

I never post rhododendron pictures since Wiki says rhododendrons are out west in the moist forests of Oregon and Washington. Do folks in the northwest have rhododendrons? I do have azalea and mountain laurel pictures which may only be in the east.

Future east coast travelers, my favorite "grand tour" starts at Mammoth Cave NP, then Great Smokey Mountains NP, the Blue Ridge Parkway and then Shenandoah NP (continuing on to Washington DC is an option). The entire trip is a month long or exhausting when done faster (four NP's, 600+ park road miles, plus connections). One or two days at Mammoth Cave NP on the cave tours. Two to four days at GSM NP including some barbecue in Gatlinburg but no extensive hiking. Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway is exhausting so plan to explore along the way using a good guide book (we use "Hiking and Traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway" by Adkins), lots of stops/pictures/exploration, and spend up to a couple of weeks (we plan to spend a month on the Blue Ridge Parkway alone in May 2018). Shenandoah NP is worth another two to four days without significant hiking. The Blue Ridge Parkway campgrounds open in mid May and we prefer early season travel so we would finish Mammoth Cave and GSM by mid May and work the parkway north. Flowers will appear during this time but altitude and climate cause a lot of variation. We see lots of flowers on the trail (azalea and rhododendron) but mostly Mountain Laurel along the road. We settle into a campground no later than Thursday and move no earlier than Sunday (assuming no holiday) for an uncomplicated trip.

 

[Occidental]

I'm enjoying the pictures and travel advice. It may be a few years before I make it that far east due to the time needed, but it's good to have the info.

Yes, there's rhodies aplenty in the Pacific Northwest, but I don't think I've ever run across mountain laurel.

 

[smlobx]

Glad you've had a chance to enjoy the BRP.
If you're interested you may want to check out a hike near Roanoke to McAfee's Knob, perhaps the most photographed area on the AT in Va.
Also check out Grayson Highlands State Park. The AT runs through it and you can see wild ponies in the upper pastures. Beautiful hiking.

 

[Marc]

Thats some beautiful country, thanks for sharing.

marc

 

[longhorn1]

Visited the site and monument along the Rhine River in Southern France where Audie Murphy took over a machine gun of a burning tank to thwart a German advance. This trip was back in 2012 as part of a Viking River Cruise along the Rhine River. jd

 

[Squatch]

Very nice. Pics look fine to me!

If you saw my GWNF trip report. That is the other side of the valley from skyline drive. West of I-81.

From one of my favorite campsites you can see Skyline 30 miles away in the distance below us.

 

[iowahiker]

"Small" highlights from the 2015 June Appalachian Trail day hiking trip southwest of Roanoke, VA.

Pink Lady Slipper near the AT:

Flaming Azalea along the AT:

Mountain Laurel along the trail but very common along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Worm Eating Warbler playing injured to draw us away from the nest along an AT connector trail above Falls of Dismal southwest of Roanoke. One of only six new world warblers which nest on the ground and so the "injury" play. The tent caterpillar is the favorite "worm" of this warbler.

Two views of the same butterfly on the rocks at Falls of Dismal.

One of the original state boundary markers between Virginia and West Virginia after the Civil War. The red paint is forest service red since the state boundary is also the national forest boundary.

Stones cleared from a mountain top pasture/field neatly stacked along the AT.

I am almost caught up with all my picture sorting.