Great Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge Parkway 2027

The Smokies and the Blue Ridge Parkway are easy to love and surprisingly easy to waste. This guide shows you how to plan a trip across the ridges that respects the road, the crowds and the weather.

America's most visited national park and its most famous scenic road share the same mountains, but they are very different trips. This book treats them as one journey across Southern Appalachia, with honest advice about traffic, closures, costs and which stops repay the effort.

What's inside

• Three itineraries that respect the road, an honest look at costs, where to stay and a booking order that actually works
• The Smokies gateways: Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and quiet Townsend
• Newfound Gap Road and Kuwohi, Cades Cove, Vehicle-Free Wednesdays and the synchronous fireflies of Elkmont
• Hikes worth your boots, from Alum Cave and LeConte Lodge to Rainbow Falls, Grotto Falls, Ramsey Cascades and Abrams Falls, with advice for children and older legs
• The North Carolina side: Oconaluftee, Cataloochee, Deep Creek and Cherokee
• Asheville and the southern Blue Ridge Parkway, with post-Helene conditions explained
• The High Country: Linville Falls, Grandfather Mountain, the Linn Cove Viaduct and Blowing Rock
• Virginia's Blue Ridge: Humpback Rocks, Peaks of Otter, Roanoke and Mabry Mill
• Mountain music, mountain food, fall color, maps and full-color photos