Summer is upon us and the seasonal roads through the backwoods and the high country are (mostly) open for exploration Spring is all but gone and summer is upon us? What’s that mean? It means it’s time to get into the Smokies and explore. Luckily, it also means all the seasonal roads in the Smokies are open and ready to be travelled.
The Road to Nowhere in the Smoky Mountains has become an unlikely tourist attraction They say you shouldn’t mess with Texas. But there are other places in the world with well-earned reputations of grittiness that surpass ordinary folks like you and me. But while some talk a good game, other folks are all about that life without catchy slogans or
A guide to putting winter in the rearview in the mountains After a long, cold – possibly lonely – winter, spring is on the horizon. The prospect of returning to the outdoors without bundling up like an arctic explorer is alluring and enticing. If you’re like me and winter feels chiefly like being grounded for three months, anticipation overflows. I watch
From Arbor Day to Presidents’ Day, we rank the best holidays to spend in the Smokies We don’t think about it much. But for many of us, the big clock of our lives is set to the coming and going of holidays. It started for many of us in school. From Labor Day to Memorial Day, our lives were set
I was raised as a can-of-worms type fisherman. When I was a boy, nobody was taking a fly rod to the various lakes, rivers and stocked cow ponds of Southern Indiana. And so, when we moved to the mountains and discovered fly fishing, it was something exotic, poetic and, frankly, incredibly hard. I was a fairly athletic young man. Baseball, football,
What To Do When The Weather Threatens Your Smoky Mountain Vacation A few years ago, I took my family on a Gulf Coast vacation. We started off over by Mobile and then drove around the panhandle to visit family near Tampa. Or at least that was the plan. There was something swirling in the waters of the gulf. It was
Why the National Parks latest action may lead to Kaiju in the Smokies They say you have to fight fire with fire. Honestly, I’m not sure that’s true but the say it. But now that I think about it, sometimes you can use fire – and fire breaks – to help use up the fuel faster. That allows the fire
Best places to take in celestial wonders in the Smoky Mountains I don’t know that we can fully comprehend the beauty that exists in, above, and below the Smoky Mountains. From the wonders of the cave formations below the mountains, to the natural beauty of the deep greens of summer, the cornucopia of color in the fall, the view of
How annual controlled burns in Cades Cove are good for the environment and the forest “John, wake up. The woods on fire.” It was a little after midnight and I quickly found myself – at the age of 13 or so – standing in the front yard with one of our two hoses, wetting down the yard and the tree
A guide to not getting attacked, eaten, arrested, or infamous on the internet while on your trip to the Smokies There are a lot of sentences I never thought I’d have to type, but right there at the top of the list is the following: Don’t touch wild bears. We learn a lot of things in our lives, but one