Great Smokey Mountain National Park

The first national park on our trip was Great Smokey Mountain National Park.

This park is the most visited park in the United States. It is huge and only has a few roads

through it. The Appalachian trail goes right through the middle. The park is famous for the rich biodiversity of the area. There are many species found only here.

Besides the natural beauty of wood, stream and mountain, there are also remnants of cabins and settlement from before the area was a national park.

This picture is one of the mills in the area.

We enjoyed some beautiful waterfalls.

 The trees were a beautiful spring green, but looked different depending on the time of day and the direction of the light.

Here you can see why they are called the Smokey Mountains. It really is a beautiful sight.

While we didn't hike the Appalachian trail, we paralleled it for at least 600 miles.

Interesting looking barn.

Another mill

Mill stones

Coins people have thrown in the mill race.

This man was playing a psaltery. It was really cool. I have a video clip on facebook.

Cindy and I.

Lots of tunnels both in Smokey Mountain National park and the Blue ridge parkway.