Blue Ridge Mountains, Skyline Drive and the Appalachian Trail

Skyline Drive is closed during the winter due to the elevation resulting in frequent snow and ice.  Some of the Blue Ridge peaks of the Appalachian chain of mountains are about 5,000 feet above sea level.  They are no Rocky Mountains, but they are certainly tall enough! 

Can you imagine being Daniel Boone and being the very first white man to walk through these mountains?  He was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, moved with his folks to North Carolina when he was 15, and in 1769 discovered a path to the west through the Appalachian's where the now-states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia converge.  These woods and mountains were full of black bear back then, and there are still quite a few in them now.  (Our little farmhouse is just east of these mountains and remember we saw a black bear in our own "back yard" about 100 yards from the house.)

The Appalachian's run from the Canadian border in Maine down into Alabama.  Part of these mountains have Skyline Drive and to the south it's called the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Appalachian Trail runs along the very tippy-top of the Blue Ridge Mountains for 1,200 miles!  It's parallel to the road so you can stop and hike a bit of it if you want.  (ALWAYS take water and trail snacks.)  If you wanted to you can hike the whole 1,200 miles and tent camp.  Now there's an adventure I'd like to take if I weren't old and fat!  Then again, if I did it I probably wouldn't be fat anymore!