Smokies, Shenandoah and a side of Shakespeare

Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
June 3-5

Shaun at the entrance to our fourteenth National Park

After weeks of exploring the parks from California to South Dakota, it was time to start making our way East. We drove from the Badlands to Tennessee in two nights, arriving at the park early the morning of June 3rd. Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited National Park in the United States. Yup, that's right, Great Smoky. With over nine million visitors in 2011 alone, it totally dwarfs the numbers of the Grand Canyon (4.2 million), Yosemite (3.8 million) and Yellowstone (2.8 million). It's easy to see why. It has all the things you would expect from a National Park, like incredible scenery, great hiking, fishing, camping and wildlife viewing. But unlike Grand Canyon or Yosemite, it is a close drive from many large cities. And since the majority of the big National Parks are in the West, many East Coasters take advantage of having one of the nation's biggest parks within a day's drive.

The beautiful Smoky Mountains

We planned to spend one day at Great Smokies and then head farther North for two nights at Shenandoah. With only a day to spend here, we decided to find a good hike and make it worth the time. We stopped in at the Sugarlands visitor center and talked to a ranger who suggested Chimney Tops, one of the most popular hikes in the park. This trail was under major renovations and was closed from Monday-Thursday, but it was Sunday so luckily the trail was open to hiking.

We loved the drive up to Chimney Tops. We wound through the aptly named Smoky Mountains, looking out on the gray and blue hills as far as the eye could see. We stopped a few times to check out the view, but we were really anxious to get started on our hike. When we finally arrived at the parking area, we were very lucky to get one of the last spots available. We packed up our lunches, put on sunscreen and walked down to the trailhead where we saw this sign:

It was quite clear to me at that point that I would not be making the final ascent at the end of the trail, but Shaun had faith that I would be scrambling up that mountain at his side. So off we went, into the woods once again.

It starts off slow, all footbridges and pretty streams

Rhododendron bushes line the trail

Chimney Tops trail starts off very tame, just a nice little walk through the woods beside babbling brooks and deep green rhododendron bushes with their lovely purple flowers coating the path. All too soon though, that path starts to creep uphill, getting steeper and steeper and more and more rocky. The distance to the top was short, only about two miles, but because of the steepness, it was one of the more difficult hikes we have done on the trip. Finally, after hiking straight uphill for what seemed like an eternity, we reached the rock summit. My ever optimistic husband still thought there was a slight possibility that I would climb to the top with him, but one look and I knew there was not a snowball's chance in hell I was summiting.

It was steep and rocky like this for a long time

And there were other obstacles besides rocks!

Shaun at the summit. Obviously I didn't take this one!

I was not the only one. The trail was very busy that day and the area around the summit was quite crowded. After a while I realized there were three kinds of people at Chimney Tops that day. There were the chickens like me, who took their partners packs and hung back at the safe plateau just before the last climb. We laughed and talked together and nervously watched everyone else start the climb. The second type were the daredevils like Shaun, who would not let anything stand in the way of the summit. They barely said goodbye before starting the long scramble up the granite cliff. But the best was the third group, people who decided to try to make the ascent, but were so scared once they started that they had to turn around within minutes. And then they had to try to get back down! The third group made me feel better about my decision to stay behind!

I watched Shaun make his climb and then anxiously waited as he went out of sight. The view was apparently spectacular, so he lingered for a while up there until making the tenuous trip back down. I must say, I was very happy to have him back in sight. When he finally got back down, he said the view was amazing, but that I would have divorced him if he had convinced me to go up there. So as I see it, a marriage was saved that day by my cowardice!

After a quick picnic lunch (a peanut butter sandwich never tasted so good!) we started the descent. It was definitely slow going, but we arrived back at the car with some time to spare so we took our time driving across the park towards North Carolina, stopping to take in all the beauty of the Smoky Mountains.

Half the park is in Tennessee, half in North Carolina

One last view of the Smoky Mountains

That afternoon we arrived at my cousin Julie's place in Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville is one of my favorite little cities in the US and one I got to know very well years ago when my sister Katie and her husband Don lived there. Shaun had never been, so I was excited that he was getting a chance to visit, and Julie was the perfect host! On the agenda for the night... Shakespeare in the Park!

It was such a fun night! Julie, who owns a catering business, had packed up a cooler full of delicious treats including mac and cheese and yummy steak sandwiches. The guys put together another cooler of beer and wine and we were off. The amphitheater was really close to her house so we walked down and set up a spot for our group. There were six of us total, Shaun and I, Julie and her boyfriend John and their friends Scott and Raleigh. We settled ourselves in on the blankets, poured some white wine and enjoyed a perfect North Carolina evening. The play was Much Ado About Nothing and it was put on by an acting troupe who have been performing Shakespeare in the park for forty years. We had a wonderful time and we loved the play, but I must say it was a bit surreal to go from camping in the Badlands to Shakespeare in the Park!

Lots of folks came out for Shakespeare in the park

Nothing like a little culture! Especially when it is served with Mac & Cheese!

After the play, with our fabulous hosts Julie and John

The next morning Shaun and I mapped out our drive to Shenandoah, packed up the car and then headed into Asheville Center to meet Julie and her daughter Erin for brunch. She chose a place called Chorizo and it was fantastic! The food was Latin, so they had menu items like egg scrambles with shrimp and corn cakes with shredded pork. YUM! Brunch was wonderful and the company was fabulous but all too soon it was time to go. We said our goodbyes and hopped back in the car once again, headed for Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

It only took about four hours to drive from Asheville to the Southern entrance of Shenandoah so we arrived early in the afternoon. The main road through the park is Skyline Drive, which follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains 105 miles from the northern entrance at Front Royal, VA to the southern entrance just outside Waynesboro, VA. We had big plans to camp, but we also wanted to spend enjoy the drive to the campground along Skyline drive, so we took things slow. The drive was just gorgeous.

Arrival at Shenandoah

That evening we set up camp at our campground at Loft Mountain. The campground was nice, but the real treat was when we realized we were just yards from one of the entrances to the Appalachian Trail!! After all our crazy hiking, I could think of nothing more fun than to spend the next day on one of the most famous hiking trails in America. In my mind I imagined us hiking for the whole day, meeting "through hikers" who were conquering these 2,180 miles on their way from Georgia to Maine. Unfortunately, we would never end up exploring the Appalachian Trail as we were about to get hit with a bad bout of Frankfurt Syndrome.

Such a beautiful afternoon at Shenandoah

If you've been following the blog all along, you may remember Frankfurt Syndrome from, well, Frankfurt of course! It was the last city on our the European Leg of the trip and we were just exhausted. The weather was chilly and we both had colds and something about the knowledge that we were going home soon made us want to stay in the hotel and order room service instead of exploring the city. We managed to check out a few things in Frankfurt but it was fairly half hearted as far as sight seeing goes. When the same thing happened in Bangkok near the end of the Asia Pac part of the trip, we decided it needed a name and so Frankfurt Syndrome was born.

So here's how it all went down this time. When we woke up there was a thick fog all around us, but that was no big deal so we grabbed our toothbrushes and headed over to the bathrooms to clean up. As I headed back to the tent, it started to rain and then it started to pour. I was freezing and soaked so I made a quick beeline for the car, started the engine and cranked up the heat. Pretty soon I was joined by Shaun, who was even more soaked than me. After watching big pools of water develop all around our formerly nice campsite, Shaun turned to me and asked what I thought about trying to drive back to Massachusetts in one day. He didn't have to ask twice. We waited for the rain to slow a bit and then packed up all of our mud and rain soaked gear in the car and got back on Skyline drive.

Minutes before the deluge began

The fog was thick as pea soup as this bunny can attest.

Although I think I'll always regret not hiking the Appalacian Trail that day, it wasn't a total loss. We took Skyline drive all the way up to the Northern Entrance, stopping along the way to take in the views of this beautiful park. During the drive we saw lots of wildlife, including not one, but two fawns who couldn't have been more than a few weeks old. So we felt like we had at least seen the park, if not in the way we had intended.

We were laughing because we were reading the wildlife exhibit behind Shaun when this deer popped out of the woods!

This little guy stood no higher than my knee and he was trapped on the side of the road by the brick wall. We called the rangers and they sent someone to rescue him.

Another ten miles down the road we met these two. It was like Bambi! Only happier because her mother was still alive!


And once we left the park we drove...and drove...and drove. Fourteen and a half hours to be exact. We pulled up at my sister's house in Milford, MA at 2AM, having let them know we would be very late arrivals. We left all our stuff in the car, walked upstairs and fell into bed, completely exhausted.

Our stop at my sister's was just a quick one. We had one last National Park on the agenda, but first up was my college reunion. I spent most of the three days in Milford trying to remove the filth from six weeks of camping and hiking. I couldn't take off the extra ten pounds, but I did manage a haircut, mani, pedi and a quick shopping trip to find a few outfits that didn't involve wick-away material or spandex. We checked through our mail, unpacked and re-packed the car and headed out for one last trip. We had visited 15 National Parks, most of which were completely new to both of us. Fittingly, we would end the trip with a visit to a National Park that we both have loved for years, Acadia National Park in Maine.

Farewell Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge Mountains!