A decades-long battle between clear-cutters and
...camera-toting tree huggers barely created a national park before the virgin forests were gone.
Today, Smokies roadsides are adorned with artful stone walls.
People like these 1930s gentlemen still pose with ancient trees.
The Roosevelt Administration fought the Great Depression with parks, and the Civilian Conservation Corps stepped up.
You can still see their stonework in Newfound Gap where FDR dedicated the Smokies in 1940.
Abrams Falls Trail
Cades Cove
Sugarlands Visitor Center
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
Newfound Gap
Oconaluftee Mountain Farm & Mingus Mill
A sunset over the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The early Parkway pierced places that locals never imagined they’d see a road.
The road to Grandfather Mountain wasn’t finished until 1987.
Massive road cuts like this were needed in North Carolina near Doughton Park, Pisgah Inn, and elsewhere.
At Milepost 19, visitors sit along the carefully-constructed wall at 20 Minute Cliff Overlook
At Rough Ridge (milepost 302.8), endless views like this remind us the Parkway is surely the iconic ideal of the American road trip.
Craggy Gardens
Green Knob Overlook
Mt. Mitchell State Park
Laurel Knob Overlook
Linn Cove Viaduct
Upper Linville Falls
Lower Linville Falls
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park
Benton MacKaye and Myron Avery, 1931.
For nearly a century, hiking enthusiasts of all sorts have been carrying tools into the woods to wrest the Appalachian Trail out of wild, rocky ground.
Earl Sheffer photographed here on Maine’s Mount Katahdin, is considered the first reported AT thru-hiker (1948).
Along an open stretch of the North Carolina section of the AT, a bright sunset decorates the skyline.
Wayah Bald
Franklin
Max Patch
Hot Springs
Roan Highlands
Paula pets one of her beloved dairy goats at her home in Henderson County.
Goats are still raised at Connemara. This two-week-old Saanen kid is held by a park ranger.
Carl studied Lincoln for more than 30 years; here, he reviews a collection of Lincoln papers
With cluttered desktops and full bookshelves, Sandburg used his downstairs study mostly as a business office.
Front Lake overlooks the Sandburg Historic Site, complete with interpretive signage of the area’s significance.
Paula’s dairy goat herd was, at one time, as large as 200. Her kids were sold internationally, and she became a household name in the dairy goat world.
The sign attests that the path ahead is a genuine, colonial-era road that the militia traveled on.
On the 200th anniversary, the 1980 reenactors traveled the same path as the militia. Reenactments like these are still popular today, such as a recent annual march reenactment hosted by the OVTA.
Morganton’s McDowell House, built in 1812, is where the Overmountain Men mustered at Quaker Meadows in 1780.
Roan Highlands
Lake James State Park
Fort Defiance
Kings Mountain National Military Park
On the long walk to Oklahoma, formal routes like this Illinois road told the Cherokees they were far from (the wilds of) their homeland.
Junaluska Memorial and Museum
Museum of the Cherokee People
Unicoi Turnpike Trail
A marker honoring Sand Town’s first chief, Chuttatoee and his wife Cunstagih, who were also known as Jim and Sally Woodpecker.
The Appalachian Trail - courtesy of Appalachian Trail Conservancy
The Appalachian Trail - courtesy of Appalachian Trail Conservancy
The Appalachian Trail - courtesy of Appalachian Trail Conservancy
The Appalachian Trail - courtesy National Park Service
The Appalachian Trail - courtesy of Randy Johnson
The Appalachian Trail - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of National Park Service
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of National Park Service
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of National Park Service
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of National Park Service
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Blue Ridge Parkway - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Great Smokey Mountains - courtesy of Carol M.
Great Smokey Mountains - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Great Smokey Mountains - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Great Smokey Mountains - courtesy of National Park Service
Great Smokey Mountains - courtesy of National Park Service
Great Smokey Mountains - courtesy of National Park Service
Great Smokey Mountains - courtesy of National Park Service
Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail - courtesy of Randy Johnson
Trail of Tears National Historic Trail - courtesy of Western Carolina University
