Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

Pigeon River

Pigeon Forge & the Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee: Waterfalls, Mingus Mill and Snow in April

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Last Updated: August 3, 2026

Pigeon Forge is a year-round tourist town in the western foothills of the Smoky Mountains — shows, shopping, bars, restaurants, go-karts, hiking, watersports, and the mountains themselves. There are simply too many things to see and do in a week. It is also the front door to the most visited national park in the United States, which is the reason we came, and the strip out front turns out to be a genuinely useful thing to have when the weather in the park goes sideways.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park with low clouds, Tennessee
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Grand Portage National Monument & Duluth, Minnesota: Fur Trade History, High Falls & Lake Superior

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Last Updated: June 22, 2026

Grand Portage sits at the very tip of Minnesota’s Arrowhead region, pressed against the Canadian border on the western shore of Lake Superior. It was once one of the most strategically important spots in North America — a crossroads where French and British fur traders, Ojibwe people, and voyageurs converged on the greatest of the Great Lakes. The scenic drive from Voyageurs National Park is curvy and beautiful, hugging the Lake Superior shoreline through dense boreal forest as you climb toward the Canadian border.

Sunset over Lake Superior at Grand Portage, Minnesota — on the shore of the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, photographed by Michael Huntley travel blogger
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