Four States in One Day

On our adventure to the Smokey Mountains we drove through the rest of KY, Virginia, Tennessee, then North Carolina. We stayed for 3 days at the smokemont campground. The trees were so bright orange, red, brown, and all colors in-between, the air and sky even seemed beautifuly tinted.

This area, before it became a national park in 1926, had roughly 1,2000 homesteaders. Little farms where they were able to eek out a self sufficient life. All the trees in this area, 5 mile radius, are second growth and the families were displaced; part of the Hillbilly Hwy. Of course, that was after the Cherokees were displaced. Here is the grist mill the farmers used