Going in early May for a week or so. Planning to drive the NC portion of the BRP. Anyone been? Tips? TripAdvisor.com has a lot of info/reviews....
If you're into fishing and willing to hike a little I can give you some good places to go to catch trout. Me and a buddy used to go down there every May for a 4 day fishing trip. My best day was 39 brook trout, but we had to hike about 3 miles in to get to that particular stream.
Thanks but I doubt the GF wants to spend our vacation fishing. It wouldn't hurt my feeling though..... We are wanting to do some rafting.
That's be fun! Be warned, the water is cold! It warms up some as it gets to lower elevations, but I'm still always surprised when I step into it for the first time. But maybe it won't be so bad this year with the mild winter we've had. The Cades Cove loop in TN is a cool drive to make at dusk. It's normally busy with other cars at that time, but you're almost guaranteed to see tons of wildlife as they come out of the woods into the fields for the evening. Abrams Falls is in that same area, which is pretty cool to see and a relatively easy 2 mile hike in. Fun story, I got stuck behind about 8 Model T's on the Blue Ridge Parkway one morning. I had seen them all at the hotel that morning and talked to them, it was group of mostly retirees that had driven there from out west somewhere on a cross-country road trip. I wish we'd have left a little earlier that day and beat them, because we were trying to get an early start fishing but those Model T's topped out at about 15mph on some of those hills! After about 30 minutes they eventually pulled over and let us by. It was really cool driving through the morning fog with those old cars though!
That's one thing I've yet to do while on the BRP..... Guess I didn't make it down that far from up in VA. It's about 45 minutes from the house to an entry point. Beautiful scenery for 99% of the rest of it to the north.
The best advice I can give is to go slow and enjoy the scenery everywhere and to also take lots and lots of pictures. We've travelled the parkway several times and have gone both ways on it and I doubt I could ever tire of it. Take lots of hikes and pull off at every spot that has a pull-off. My wife and I have been blessed to see much of this United States and many of the National Parks but have to admit that the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Shenandoah National Park (on the north end) is one of the most beautiful drives we've taken. We also love the slower speed limit (but who could drive fast there anyway?) and the fact there are no stop signs or stop lights for hundreds and hundreds of miles! Enjoy the trip.
We will probably stay in the Gatlinburg area, but plan to drive most of the NC portion of the BRP from Smokey Mountain NP to the Bowling Rock area. That should cover 25 of the 26 BRP tunnels (IICR) /Linn Cove Viaduct/Grandfather Mt. We are also going to drive the Tail of the Dragon. May stay a night in Nashville and watch the Grand 'Ole Opry.
Please be nice to guys on a sportbike and let them by you. But don't let an Harley guys in front of you, they'll likely be riding slower than most cars!
Be nice to us flat-landers passing through too. We're not used to roads with curves...and hills...and stuff. I felt like I was dirt-tracking through there, only to get passed by some old lady in a 1986 1-ton pickup.
^that's funny^ I have a bad habit of driving way too fast on curvy roads, but I grew up driving country roads like that. But I was put to shame driving in the mountains on 2 lane roads in West Virginian a few years ago on a ski trip. I was really struggling to keep up with several 18 wheeler logging trucks. THOSE guys were fearless!!
