Tag: national parks
Trip planning take 2: Rockies or Ontario?
I’m still in trip dreaming and planning mode over here in icy Virginia. J and I are tossing around the idea of doing a Big Trip late this summer; in the past we’d done a Big Trip every two years (#1 in 2016, #2 in 2018, #3 in 2020, and #4 in 2022), but this
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Two nights in Townsend, TN—Thanksgiving Mountains loop
We visited Townsend as part of our Thanksgiving Mountains loop in November 2025. Townsend had been on our radar since we researched a Smokies trip in 2020. Of the Tennessee-side gateway towns to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it appealed most to us as a base from which to explore the Cades Cove section of
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One night in Bryson City, NC (visit #2)–October WV/NC Mountains loop
We visited Bryson City in October 2025 as part of our October WV/NC Mountains loop. Read about our first Bryson City visit in May 2025 here. From Waynesville it was a pleasant 45-minute drive to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park parking area near Bryson City. We’d gotten up early and were fortunate to snag
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One night in Waynesville, NC–October WV/NC Mountains loop
We visited Waynesville in October 2025 as part of our October WV/NC Mountains loop. Waynesville is the largest town in North Carolina west of Asheville, a fact that surprised me. It’s thirty miles west of Asheville, and two hours southwest of our previous stop, Banner Elk. Waynesville has a picturesque downtown with shops and restaurants,
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Two nights in Bryson City, NC–May Carolinas loop
We visited Bryson City in May 2025 as part of our May Carolinas loop. Read about our second visit in October 2025 here. Bryson City is a small town tucked up into the mountains an hour west of Asheville, 20 minutes west of Sylva, 40 minutes north of Franklin, and 1.5 hours northwest from our
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Trip planning: an excuse to go to the Rockies?
[Read the second draft of this trip proposal written in 2/26 here!] My sister gave me a super cute water bottle for my birthday, with spaces to stick pretty stickers for each national park you’ve visited. I happily decorated the bottle with 44 stickers and only later realized I made a mistake: I stuck on
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Carolinas in November: Retrospective
In November 2024, we made a big loop down the South Carolina coast and back up through central SC and into the NC mountains. We had a ton of fun, ate and drank and played a lot, saw nature and art and history, and would love to do a variation on this trip again in
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One night in Columbia, SC–Carolinas in November trip
We visited Columbia in November 2024 as part of our two-week Carolinas in November trip. The main reason we wanted to go to Columbia on our way from the coast to the mountains was Congaree National Park. Yes, there’s a national park hidden away in central South Carolina! Columbia is also the state capital, is the
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Trip planning: the Carolinas in November
[UPDATE! Here’s what we ended up doing!] Hello! We have a quiet summer Airstream-wise and are itching to get out on the road! To scratch that itch, we’re starting to plan our next Airstream adventure in November. We have two weeks between plans in Southern Pines, NC and Burlington, NC, so that seems like a
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Tucson for Christmas Trip: Retrospective
We were on the road from 12/10/23 to 1/14/24 for our Christmas trip to Tucson. We had some lofty goals this trip: obviously we were going to spend a solid chunk of time in Tucson for Christmas with family, but we also wanted to get all the way out to Death Valley, and hit Austin
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