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Writer's pictureMTNestWanderer

North Carolina - Great Smoky Mountain National Park


I visited North Carolina on day 5 of a 9 day road trip. I started from home in Wisconsin, went east and south, visiting National Park Service Properties along the way, getting as far south as Congaree National Park in South Carolina. I was now headed back north. In the morning, I had done a short but tough hike at the Tallulah State Park in Georgia. When I got to Cherokee, NC, where I am staying for the night, I went straight to the Oconoluftee Visitor Center at the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. As usual, the visitor center had a great video that I watched, then I talked to a ranger and asked for a short, easy hike.


I did a 3 mile hike right from the VIsitor Center that had pretty much NO elevation change. The hike went along the Oconoluftee River, which has a few small rapids, and seems pretty shallow in general. At one location, I saw a guy fly fishing, and he wasn't very deep. It was very pretty!

At the Visitor Center, they have an outdoor museum of a Mountain Farm. It must have been too early in the season when I was there, because the farm looked like it could hold animals in the pens, and that there were probably blacksmiths and other craftsmen there during the summer, but none of that was going on when I was there.

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park spans two states, North Carolina and Tennessee, and the next day, I did more hikes on the Tennessee side.

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