We left the Smoky Mountains to visit Washington DC. We decided to take a leisurely drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway (in the Smoky Mountains) and the interconnecting Skyline Ridge Parkway (in the Shenandoah). These parkways are slow travel but very scenic. The day was somewhat overcast as we started and the picture below certainly…
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After our spelunking experience we drifted eastward into the Great Smoky Mountains national park. We stayed in a less frequented part of the park near Crosby. The main area around Gatlinburg is very busy and commercial. The area around Crosby highlights the quiet and rich nature of a climax eastern forest. The two photos below…
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Having followed the Parkway along the Natchez Trace from Natchez through to Tupelo, we skipped out to the main highways and continued north into Kentucky to see the Mammoth Cave National Park. We took several cave tours and explored the cave system — we considered the ‘Wild Cave Tour’ but did not have enough time…
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Finished with New Orleans, we headed north along the Natchez Trace Parkway. The parkway follows an old trail from Natchez to (near) Nashville. The trace was used by folks taking their goods to market in the port cities of the south from the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. They would float the goods down by river…
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While we stayed in New Orleans, on top of the fabulous night life in the Quarter, we toured some of the surrounding areas — particularly some Antebellum home along the Mississippi. The two shots below are taken at Nottaway. One is a view of the river from the porch and the other is a view…
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Encouraged by our modest success during the fall on 1991, we decided that fun could be had by driving the Interstates, camping and visiting interesting places. We had purchased an Aerostar van and I built some shelves to fit behind the rear bench seats and cabinet to sit behind the front passenger seats (the middle…
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After Las Vegas we headed into Arizona and the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We camped in the Mather Campground and toured the stops on the South Rim by car. The photo above tries to capture some of the scale of the place. The view is toward the north-east. The picture does not, however,…
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After reaching Lee Vining, we headed south and drove the length of Owen’s Valley. We then turned east and headed over the Panamint mountain range to see Death Valley. Climbing the Panamint range is an arduous travail for most cars. The grade is very steep and it is very hot. There are many stopping points…
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After leaving San Francisco, we headed east from the Bay area to Livermore, across the Central Valley, and towards the Yosemite. On the way, close to the Sierra Nevada Range, there are a number of flooded rivers, now reservoirs for the large cities on the coast. In the case of the reservoir shown in the…
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This was the first of my road trips and while brief, it spawned all of the rest. I realised that you could see a heck of a lot of country and some very interesting locations by traveling in a car with camping equipment. Of course, the set up for this first trip was very primitive…
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