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The scenic Skyline drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the 441 has taken more than 9 days to drive through three National Parks.  On our way back through the freeways,  it was only a 6 hour drive before reaching Harrisonburg. Harrisonburg is a town about 2 hours drive from Washington DC. We dined at Jimmy Madidson’s, a popular hang-out area for college students; had a comfortable stay at Harrisonburg before heading to Washington DC on our last day of the road trip.

The White House is blocked by gates and seemingly heavily guarded.  We could not get close.   Construction work was going on.  It came across as a big unimpressive building that did not reflect its political significance.  

The leisure walk to the Lincoln Memorial along the reflecting pool was enjoyable.  The Lincoln Memorial has a sense of grandness and historical significance that makes it stand out.  President Lincoln is among the greatest presidents of the United States, and highly respected by everyone for his leadership to unify the country and end the 4-year civil war.  He probably earned the most prestige for the emancipation of the slaves.   On our walk to the Washington Monument, we stopped by the World War II memorial.   The Washington Monument was impressively tall, with the many American flags surrounding it, it made quite an impression.   Lunch was a quick one from the food truck parking around the area.    

The Lincoln Memorial, the reflection pool, the Washington Monument, the Mall and the Capitol made a decent conclusion to our road trip. 

There are still places that we would like to visit in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Washington DC area.   As such, we hope to be back! 

Great Smoky Mountains NP (GSMNP) is arguably the most visited NP in the country, free of admission fee, and located conveniently in proximity of many states. 

Driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee has been a treat with the diversity of the foliage colour.   We had a buffet lunch at Granny’s kitchen in Cherokee, it was inexpensive and stomach filling.  Last time we had a buffet, it was probably over five years ago.  

We had reserved an hour of horseback riding at Smokemont Riding Stables. The horse looked small until I got on the saddle and my leg hardly reached the footstep, quite nervous at the beginning and when the horse crossed over a river or walked down a slope.  It was an absorbing experience, and certainly among the highlights.  

We went up the Clingmans dome tower for the sunset on top of the smoky mountain ranges.   It was quite a wait among the cold and windy conditions, but totally worth it. 

That was the last sunny day on this tour.   Due to the storms and mudslides, the highway 441 across the park was closed, which blocked our plan to watch the sunrise inside the park.   With closure of other roads inside the park, we detoured to visit Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, both very interesting cities.  Gatlinburg is a touristy town with lots of restaurants and shops in the main street, seemingly a popular ski area in winter.   Pigeon Forge is famous for the Dollywood, named after the famous singer Dolly Parton.  The town is fairy tale like.  The main street is lined with a remake of Titanic, a King Kong sitting on a building, an upside down building, and all kinds of interesting museums such as crime museum, mirror mazes.  It makes a great place to visit for families with young children.  

The Highland Manor Inn in Townsend was our accommodation, located very close to the GSMNP.  Many like Townsend for its beauty and calm compared to the busier Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  A few told us the nearby Maryville was worth a visit, we went there to pick up some groceries, did some stroll but it did not live up to the reputation.   

The 11-mile Cades Cove loop was still closed to auto the next day, to clear up the debris from the storm, but hikers and bikers could get in.   We hiked 6 hours, and most of the time, we had this most visited national park for the two of us.  It was one of the most scenic and peaceful hikes, and we could take all the time we wanted to enjoy the fall colour, the nature, and the exhibits.   How many could claim that they had the GSMNP for themselves?   We saw a few white-tailed deer, they came quite close. Black bears seldom attack people, their diets are berries and acorns.  When we had the park just for the two of us, what if we ran into a family of bears? For good fortune or bad, we did not encounter a black bear, though we ran into a few hikers who saw a mother and three bear cubs on an oak tree.   We figured we probably walked right under them without knowing.  

We had a great dinner at the Dancing Bear, Townsend to recuperate from the 11-mile hike.   

It was still rainy on our third and last day in GSMNP.   The grey sky and the rain brought up the fall colour more, at times, it felt like we were in some Monet pictures.   By now, we have accepted that the Pixel or phone camera did not do its service to capture the fall colour, and the pictures just came out a bit dull.    We continued to be treated to a super scenic drive along the little river road.  The roaring fork motor drive was a nice one, and we did the Grotto falls trail with nice colour and a small waterfall at the end, where we could walk to its back. 

The locals did not use masks much nor social distancing. People in these states are different from the Bay Area neighbourhood. They are friendly and have the country style, seem to be less occupied with technology and enjoy chatting with travellers, like us.

Washington DC coming up next. 

Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic drive of over 400 miles.  It is longer and mostly wider than the Skyline drive.   It begins where the skyline drive ends, and gets us to North Carolina. Similar to the skyline drive, we made different detours from the Blue Ridge Parkway backbone.   

The Natural Bridge State Park is an easy detour.   The bridge is a real wonder, formed by natural rocks from over 500 millions years ago, and it weighs 36000 tons.  Its scale is hard to imagine, it is hard to differentiate millions of years, from the hundred millions of years. 

In this trip, we came across a few mills which give a glimpse of early settlement in the area.   None is as complete, functional and beautiful as the Mabry Mill.   Its setting is scenic with the water reflections, with the fall foliage and with its rustic buildings.  It has such a display of the mills, the grinds, the moonshine making tools. It is one of my favourite detours.  I wish I could have more time to spare.  

Blue ridge music center is a worthy detour, to appreciate the history.  At the time we arrived, the live music was over, and we had to leave before the gates closed shortly after 5pm.  It is a pity.   We were quite selective in our stops along the Parkway, but still felt rushed. 

With a population of around 20,000, Boone is a charming place to visit. It is beautiful, lively and has everything needed. We were there for less than 24 hours, and I liked it.   I was super-tired after checking in the hotel, and could not bring myself to leave the hotel bed for dinner.  That fast food take-out was almost an hour of wait, a combination of the labor shortage and touristy season.  

We decided to take it easy the day after, and started the next day with a decent breakfast at the Sunrise Grill.  It was simply the best breakfast on this trip (not one of): relaxing, delicious, local and authentic, served by a sweet waitress, and consumed alongside the beautiful view of fall foliage.  The breakfast got us back to a full tank of energy and ready for the stretch. 

That stretch of Blue Ridge Parkway between Boone and Asheville has been widely considered as the most scenic and it lives up to its reputation.  Blowing Rock is a nice charming town in that stretch, and we strolled around and got some sandwiches for a picnic at the scenic Moses H Cone memorial park.   The Linn Cove Viaduct area is likely the most famous stretch of the Parkway.  Built to protect nature, that part of the Parkway has been made of many S-shape sections connected along the mountains.  It is a feat of engineering, stunningly beautiful and magnificent in the fall season.   We drove back and forth the viaduct a couple of times and never got tired of the scenery.   

Trick question: How do the tourists know that they arrive at the right time for the fall colour? Answer: When we run into tons of locals carrying professional cameras and busy taking pictures along the Linn Cove Viaduct!

Julian Price Memorial Park, and the Sims pond was like a heavenly scene as the water reflections bring up the fall colour even more. Little Switzerland has been a sweet little stop along the Parkway, the ice cream, the chocolate, the decor just so Swiss.  

The sunny weather seemed to come to an end.  It was chilly and overcast as when we hiked up the Mt Mitchell observation deck.  On our way up the hundreds of steps to the Chimney Rock, the rain poured down on our rain gear.  We could hardly see any view from the top, but within fifteen minutes, it cleared up a bit to allow us to take some photos.  The Chimney Rock has a cool setup to allow us to either walk up or take an elevator.  With the weather, we took the elevator down. 

Biltmore Estate is the largest privately owned house in the United States, built for George Washington Vanderbilt II over a hundred of years ago.  The internal decor is nice, and the garden outside is quite beautiful with a conservatory full of interesting plants and florals.   It does not have the grandness of the Palace of Versailles, though the house gives a sense of warmth and comfort.  The house, the garden and the wine tasting took about six hours and made a good visit.  The almost $100  admission fee is still overpriced.  

The city of Asheville has more than 90,000 inhabitants, and has a famous tourist attraction of Biltmore Estate.  On our walk to find our dinner, we had run into at least a few drivers honking and yelling at us, for no good reasons.  It seemed not a friendly city and some drivers were simply rude.  The food was good though.  We had a delightful and delicious Indian dinner at Andaaz, within walking distance of our accommodation.  

Asheville is known for a charming downtown area, a variety of historic and architectural interests.   The downtown is lined with many good restaurants but a table can be hard to find without reservations.  The downtown stroll was interesting, but a bit uncomfortable.  For reasons that cannot be explained, it just felt a bit unsafe.  It could be that we felt the drivers did not necessarily give way to pedestrians, and that they honked at pedestrians even when we had the right of way.   We had a great dinner at  Cucina24, an Italian restaurant serving a set menu of 5 courses of carefully crafted dishes.

Next: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The scenic Skyline drive forms the backbone of the NP.  Its length is just slightly more than 100 miles and has a speed limit around 35 miles per hour.   There are so many overlooks, picture moments, hiking opportunities as well as detours we can make along the way.   We got in and out of the drive numerous times, and traversed the whole distance.

There are two accommodations inside the park:  Skyland resort and Big Meadows resort.  We ended up picking Skyland resort.   With very limited restaurant choices, we ended up waiting for over an hour to even get a take out dinner.  The room has basic amenities, and offers a good mountain view.  These inside NP accommodations are simply overpriced, another reminder of the supply-and-demand market force.

Luray Caverns was a worthy visit, and lived up to the description “there is probably no other cave in the world more completely and profusely decorated with stalactite and stalagmite ornamentation than that of Luray.”  What stood out was the Great Stalacpipe Organ.  It is hard to think of another cave with a musical instrument.   

There are many spots for sunrises and sunsets along the Skyline drive.  We stopped at the Point Overlook for the sunset.  It was a clear day, a bit cold.   I have seen other sunsets, the layers and layers of mountains made this one very special.  Watching the sun set over the mountain ranges was simply beautiful.

On two separate days, we did the stony man hike and the dark hollow falls hike. These hikes have been perfect for us, with some elevations, rewarding views and not too challenging.  There were not that many hikers along the way.   

Monticello is the never finished house of Thomas Jefferson, the third president who was known for the Declaration of Independence.   Built amidst a vast land served by hundreds of slaves, the house said little about the presidential power.  The reputation of Thomas Jefferson seems to have been tarnished in that he wrote “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, yet he owned so many slaves and did not free most in his lifetime. Mr. Jefferson could be the president that best epitomizes the country – with ideals, with principles, with dreams and yet full of dilemma and conflicts.  

Charlottesville has been on the news headlines as a person drove the car into a crowd of counter protestors in the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.  We went to the downtown mall and had a good dinner at the Whiskey Jar. It was so full of young people and energy, hard to relay the downtown with the car attack terror in 2017. 

A road trip,  focused on National Parks, is hardly the formula of the best culinary experiences.  The southern diet, of fried food, salty food and quite a bit of meat, is probably not the most healthy diet.  Most days we started with a plain breakfast, had leftovers or a minimal lunch, hopefully a more decent dinner.  We enjoyed the local cuisine.  We tried the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain, as well as the Whisker Jar at Charlottesville.  The beauty of travel includes diet relaxation and interesting dining experiences  

Next: Blue Ridge Parkway

I always found hands-on activities, such as hiking and kayaking, are great ways to experience nature.  That was what we did in this boat and glacier kayaking trip.  

We took a boat trip from Seward to the Resurrection Bay before starting kayaking towards the Aialik glacier. It was a mid-size boat to fit our group of six as well as another group of students.  We enjoyed a good long view of Dall’s Porpoises bow riding with us for quite a while, before our boat sped up to leave them behind. It was not a whale watching tour, we felt very lucky to see one. That long time in between their breaths kept us, including the colony of seagulls, waiting for the whale to splash up the fish.  

We packed up things in a heavy duty dry sack for kayaking, and the boat dropped us at a shore to pick up our kayak and accessories.  It was open water kayaking towards the Aialik glacier. It took some time for us to put on a skirt and a life vest; and our kayaking guide Candice taught us some kayaking basics.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and seemed perfect for kayaking. The glacier water was surprisingly warm, warmer than the water in Lake Tahoe in early summer.  It was so refreshing to touch those floating icebergs, and to simply enjoy the open waters. The glacier looked quite close, but that distance was deceiving in the open water.  After thousands repeats of paddling, our arms felt  it, the glacier was not much closer.  The ocean currents were building up, and that drained more energy.   We tied our kayaks together to enjoy the beauty of the glacier, while having lunch.   The three hours of kayaking gave us ample time to appreciate glaciers, explore caves, and see some wildfires including bears, oystercatchers, jellyfish.  

The fitness challenges left us pretty tired on our way back to Seward.  We had a quick fish-and-chip dinner at Seafood Grill, and headed back to our beautiful bear lake lodge.

Coming up The magnificent Harding Icefield hiking

There seemed to be a pattern in the weather so far in Alaska – our days started mostly with cloudy sky, and then the sky cleared up in the afternoon.  Showers were pretty common throughout the day.  Our backpack carried some layers of clothing, rain gear, mosquito repeller, hand sanitizer, some snack bars, and a bottle of tap water.

Denali National Park is a beautiful place of vastness and wilderness.  

With only one day to spare, we took the 6-hour Tundra bus tour to get deeper into the park.   

The bus driver gave us an overview of the landscape, as we drove the first few miles into the park.  There were wolves, grizzly bears, moose, caribou, dall sheep hidden behind the bushes and the shrubs.  In our role as tourists, we got excited every time someone spotted an animal.  Spotting animals needed some getting used to – how far were they? Which side to look at? What angle to look? What color to spot?  It was exciting to see one, and even more so, to take pictures to earn the bragging rights. It was frustrating when everyone saw the animal but you, and we missed the moose.  It still made the day as we spotted a couple of grizzly bears, quite a few caribou and scores of dall sheeps.  Our closest encounter was a grizzly bear, which strolled hundreds of feet towards our bus, and sat on the road in front of our bus for quite some time, before the sound of bus engines sent it back to the bushes. It had no fear of the bus nor the passengers in the bus; and gave us enough time to take pictures.  

WInnie the Pooh looks to be a grizzly bear. Behind its cute look, Grizzly bears are unpredictable and are often more dangerous and brutal than the black bears.  

Denali Peak, at an altitude over 20,000 feet, is so high up in the sky that its face often gets hidden in the clouds.  We saw its majestic faces a couple of times from afar, as the bus took us deep into the narrower gravel road of the park. 

As much as we appreciated the wilderness, the wildlife caught our attention more.  For the next few days, I got used to looking around and searching everywhere for wildlife.  That was such a contrast from watching the computer monitor all day long.

Our next stop was Chickaloon, where the Matanuska Glacier is.  We drove through miles and miles of wilderness, as we got hungrier and hungrier, with no restaurants, no fast food to be seen, no gas station nor grocery stores for food. We had to take a detour back to Talkeetna to get food.  The restaurants were again busy with an average wait of an hour, we got some halibut tacos from a food truck.  For the remainder of the trip, we were more prepared that the next food supply could be more than a couple of hours aways, and made sure that we filled our belly with whatever was available. 

Just as if it made up for not seeing a moose in Denali, we saw a female moose right next to our car along the way. The road to Chickaloon was winding.  We were rewarded with beautiful mountainous landscape. The Matanuska Glacier showed up first as a thin strip of ice glacier, then started to expand to show its magnitude.  That was where our ice trek tour would be the next day.

We stayed at a very beautiful cabin in the Sheep Mountain Lodge. which had a good long history in itself.  Years ago, the owner was a nurse and the place acted as a medical station for the neighborhood.  In this glacier view area,  the air was so fresh, the scenery was so inviting.  There was a helicopter right at the Lodge, getting ready to take tourists for a helicopter ride. With an award winning restaurant, it was yet another upgrade from Denali Park Village.   

We looked forward to breakfast and the chance to walk on the Matanuska glacier the next day.

Coming up Ice Trekking Tour (Day 4)