RVing in the Appalachian Mountains is a great escape into nature.
National Park built in the Eastern states and its creation was intended to give the people of the big Eastern cities an easy escape into the wonders of nature that didn’t involve making a long trek out West. On a plaque we saw a quote from John Muir’s 1901 book Our National Parks that is as appropriate today as it was over a century ago: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” The views from Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park were unobstructed by trees and were sensational. A hike up to Mary’s Rock at the north end of the park took us to an outcropping of boulders that gave us a 360-degree view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Looking out at these magnificent views and pondering the 500-mile RV trip we had just completed alongside the ridges of this mountain range, we realized that we had just scratched the surface of all there is to see and do in Appalachia. We vowed to return again.
Trilium bloom in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Blue Ridge Parkway: nps.gov/blri/index.htm Great Smoky Mountain National Park: nps.gov/grsm/index.htm
Shenandoah National Park: nps.gov/shen/index.htm Blue Ridge Music Center: blueridgemusiccenter.org
Floyd Country Store Friday Jamborees: floydcountrystore.com/music/jamboree
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN
COAST TO COAST SUMMER MAGAZINE 2017
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