The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the United States. It seems as if all the visitors were there for the fall foliage spectacle.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
North Carolina
Mount Airy, North Carolina: Andy Griffith’s Hometown, Chang & Eng Bunker’s Land & Blue Ridge Parkway Wines
Last Updated: May 2026
We couldn’t resist touring the Mount Airy area in North Carolina after years of watching Andy Griffith. What we didn’t expect was to end up camped on land once owned by the world’s most famous conjoined twins — or to discover that North Carolina produces genuinely good wine.
Asheville, North Carolina: The Biltmore Estate, Linville Falls & the Most Impressive Flush Toilet of 1895
Last Updated: May 2026
From Lake Toxaway we moved north to Asheville — arriving in a downpour, which is the correct way to experience western North Carolina in late April. The next morning the clouds had settled into the trees around the campground and stayed there, low and dramatic and completely worth looking at. We had the better part of a week, good weather eventually cooperated, and Asheville delivered on every front.
[Read more…] about Asheville, North Carolina: The Biltmore Estate, Linville Falls & the Most Impressive Flush Toilet of 1895Lake Toxaway, North Carolina: 260 Waterfalls, the Blue Ridge Parkway & Where Robber Barons Once Summered
Last Updated: May 2026
From Greenwood, South Carolina we crossed into the mountains of western North Carolina and settled in at Lake Toxaway — a 640-acre privately held lake in Transylvania County, the largest of its kind in the state. The mountains were just waking up for spring, the waterfalls were running full from snowmelt, and the Blue Ridge Parkway was almost entirely to ourselves. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful stretches of the entire trip.
[Read more…] about Lake Toxaway, North Carolina: 260 Waterfalls, the Blue Ridge Parkway & Where Robber Barons Once Summered