Welcome back to our blog! This is a trip we did from October 7-15, 2020 covering Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas. This trip will allow you to hit every state in the Southeast Region per the National Park Passport except for Florida, which would be better suited for its own trip (or add it on to an overall longer trip). Let me preface this post by saying our trip would have been very different had we had more time/planning. It was also our first time doing an official overland route, the Georgia Traverse! While I will go into some detail about the route here, I will make a full post about the overland route later since we know overland routes aren’t for everyone who wants to see the national parks. Therefore, I’m first going to go over an “ideal” version of this trip that does not include the overland route and focuses on reaching as many national park sites as possible. This is based on a combination of our own trip, plus the practical knowledge I’ve gained since we did this regarding trip planning. I think 8 days is the perfect amount for the national-park loving explorer who likes a good taste of each park, but is not an avid hiker. If you just wanted to hit the major national parks, you can do it in less time. After this itinerary, I’ll go over the actual eight day journey we made. Thank you for reading!

Day One: Mammoth Cave
Your journey begins at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Of course, depending on where your home base is, this may be day 2. (For us, our home base was in the St Louis, MO area, so if you start there, be sure to get stamped at another major national park: Jefferson National Expansion Memorial/St Louis Arch National Park.) Mammoth Cave is one of the most underrated parks, in my opinion. It’s the world’s largest cave system and spans over 400 miles, making it a World UNESCO heritage site as well as a major national park. There are several excellent guided tours. We did the Historical tour as well as the Domes and Dripstones tours – both went through completely different areas of the caves and were fascinating. Being ranger-led, they were of course expertly narrated. The caves are dark, damp and tight at times, so unfortunately may prove difficult for people with disabilities, or who have issues with dark/tight spaces. There is a disability access tour available though! And although we weren’t able to experience it ourselves, in the summer there are lantern-led tours that recreate how they used to explore the caves in the 18 and 1900s which sounds so exciting.

After Mammoth Cave, drive 4.5 hours towards Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. An optional but fascinating stop on the way is Manhattan Project NHP, a once secret city funded by the US government where the entire population unknowingly worked on the atomic bomb. You will stay the night somewhere in the Smokies and explore tomorrow.

There are several places to stay in the Smokies. You can camp, or you can stay in the cities of Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge in a hotel within walking distance to countless attractions and restaurants. We’ve stayed at both the Gatlinburg River Inn, which was simple but comfy, and the Rocky Waters Motor Inn directly next door which, despite being more expensive, was much dirtier (our first experience with hotel bugs, sob). These two inns are definitely budget accommodations and there are plenty of nicer hotels/resorts available. We have also stayed at the Dancing Bear Lodge in Townsend, aka the “quiet side of the Smokies”. While overpriced, we loved the nights we spent in this quiet cabin, the highlights being the outdoor private jacuzzi on the wrap around porch and their delicious restaurant. Note that if you stay in Townsend, you are advantageously closer to Cades Cove, but the area isn’t really walkable and you can expect a wait time of an hour or more at all of the few restaurants. The best option if you plan on spending several nights in the Smokies with a large group is renting a cabin.

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Days 2-3: The Great Smoky Mountains
Over the next two days, explore the Smoky Mountains. Visit Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg tourist attractions if you’re interested. We enjoyed a simple walk down the street in Gatlinburg in the winter, but during the summer we found it too crowded to enjoy. Popular things to do include the Anakeesta Roller Coaster and the Skybridge, which we truly enjoyed at sunset. Inside the national park, be sure to visit Clinger’s Dome if you are capable of the extremely steep hike up. You’ll get a wonderful 360 view of the mountains from so high up. The must-do, if you’d like to see bears, is driving the Cades Cove Loop. Your best chance at seeing bears is very early in the morning or late in the afternoon, as close to sunset as possible. This drive can take several hours depending on traffic. We had the best luck driving the loop starting at around 6PM until dark – we actually got to see twelve bears including a mama and her cubs! We did the short Laurel Falls Trail, which was easy and fun. While I can’t personally attest to the other hiking trails in the Smokies, this article has a list of the top 10 best hikes.

The Smokies are the most visited national park, and for good reason – they are beautiful, massive, and there is a lot to do in the surrounding areas for tourists who aren’t interested in the mountains themselves. As a result, you could easily spend a week in the Smokies, so we completely recommend this park as a trip all on its own if you want to hit its many trails, which include part of the Appalachian Trail and the Trail of Tears. There is every typical tourist gag in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, which are always swarming with families, as well as the famous Dollywood park. Dollywood is actually a former NPS location, however you can’t get it’s hidden stamp without paying the hefty price of admission. Visiting Dollywood would be a full-day affair. However, two nights is enough to see the natural highlights of the park for this itinerary, and would be enough for those not interested in hiking or the tourist traps.

At the end of day 3, drive on for 5.5 hours towards your next destination: Congaree National Park in South Carolina. Optionally stop by the Carl Sandburg Home NHS in North Carolina on the way. The family friendly activity here is to interact with the goats! There are also Cowpens NB and Kings Mountain NMP a bit out of the way. There are plenty of things to do in North Carolina, namely on the coast, however this itinerary only includes North Carolina as a drive-through state. Stay overnight nearby Congaree or at it’s in-park campsite.

Day 4: Congaree National Park
Congaree NP is often called the “worst” national park due to its lack of traditional grandeur, but it continues to be one of my favorite parks. With minimal crowds came a peaceful, unique boardwalk journey through the marshes. The boardwalk loop will show you all the best of Congaree in under two hours. You’ll get to see the adorable cypress “knees” – groups of stumps that peak from the ground that looked like a tiny fairy city to me. We did not have issues with mosquitoes in October, however bring bug spray, because apparently they can get borderline unmanageable. Congaree is easily done in one day, so after a morning in the park you’ll go on to the part of your trip where you see the cities and various national park service sites. If you’re extremely short on time, you can drive straight on through to your next major national park site, Hot Springs NP in Arkansas (see Day 8).

Days 4-7: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi
I’m allotting roughly one day to explore each state, but of course you can spend far more or less time in each state exploring the big cities and visiting the many NPS sites around. This part of the itinerary is choose your own adventure style – pick which sites interest you the most from the list below, which are ordered in geographical sense as if you were to hit all of them. I don’t recommend hitting every single site unless you’re a huge history buff/completionist with lots of time on your hands.

Part A: Visit the city of Charleston, SC. There are horse-drawn carriage tours available through this historical city if you’re interested. Nearby are Charles Pinckney NHS, which celebrates a SC senator who signed the US constitution, and civil war era Fort Sumter NM.

Part B: Head west towards capital city Atlanta, GA. Optionally detour to see Revolutionary War’s Ninety Six NHS. In Atlanta, stop at the Martin Luther King, Jr. NHS to celebrate the famous civil rights leader. Nearby are Chattahoochee River NRA and civil war site Kennesaw Mountain NBP.

Part C: Time for Alabama! There are several interesting sites in this state. Skip to part D for a more direct route. Dip Southwest to see the famous Tuskegee Institute NHS, founded by Booker T. Washington, and Tuskegee Airmen NHS to learn about a valiant group of black army pilots during WWII.

Part D: Reach the capital city of Birmingham, AL. You may hit Horseshoe Bend NMP to learn about Andrew Johnson’s Creek War, or Freedom Riders NM. Note that Freedom Riders NM was only the mural and a partially finished visitors center when we went, but you can follow the journey the actual Freedom Riders took following a park-provided map! In Birmingham, visit Birmingham Civil Rights NM.

Part E: Pass through Mississippi and see Tupelo NB or Brice’s Cross Roads NBS. Capital city Jackson is out of the way.

Part F: Head west for Arkansas. You’ll pass through Memphis, TN and music fans might want to stop at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Graceland or Sun Studio. Memphis also has the National Civil Rights Museum, but despite the name, this museum is not actually part of the NPS.

At the end of your day in Arkansas, head towards Hot Springs National Park. Drop by Little Rock Central High School NHS and tour the historic school. Stay overnight anywhere between your last stop on day 7 or in Hot Springs itself. There is the intriguing option to stay at one of the original bathhouses for a full spa experience.

Day 8: Hot Springs National Park
Explore the small city of Hot Springs. You can dip your feet in the natural hot springs scattered throughout the city for free (careful, they are VERY hot!). You can also bring spring water home from the public fountain, or treat yourself to a day in an actual bathhouse. There are lots of hiking trails in the area which you can read about here. Despite our own limited time, we felt satisfied having walked around just the immediate area in one day. Once you’ve had your fill of Hot Springs NP, your itinerary is over! If you want to do a loop, it’d be easy to start from any of these states and simply add in Illinois and Missouri.

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PART 2 – OUR ACTUAL JOURNEY: I won’t go into detail about the national park sites I mentioned above. I’m mostly just posting what we actual did for our own memories’ sake! Several aspects of the “ideal” itinerary were initially planned, but ultimately unvisited due to very strict time constraints.

Day 1: We started in the late afternoon with a 3 hour drive from our home in O’Fallon, IL to Land Between the Lakes NRA. This stretch of land is partially in Kentucky and partially in Tennessee. It’s not listed in the NP passport book, but there is a USFS stamp. It’s a solid campsite and an interesting place that we returned to for off-roading at a later date. We stayed at Colson Hollow Campground right next to the shoreline with no one else around.

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Day 2: Exiting through Land Between the Lakes, we went to the 1850s homestead farm for some educational fun. I now ask Gabe why he doesn’t go in the middle of the woods and build me a farm in a couple of months. We reached Gatlinburg, TN and stayed at the Rocky Waters Motor Inn. We have made three trips to the Smokies, so the information in the “ideal” itinerary is based on a combination of our three stays. Despite not being a clean place, we did enjoy the private jacuzzi tub in our room.

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Day 3: We climbed Clinger’s Dome and got our passport stamped there. Then we drove 3.5 hours to the Carl Sandburg Home NHS. The goat farm was closed, but it was a nice short stroll to stretch our legs at. Saving our coastal time for South Carolina, we continued for 2 hours through North Carolina towards Congaree NP. We camped at Magnolia Campground in West Columbia, SC. This campground was basically an outdoor bird enclosure turned RV park, so it was weird but interesting to sleep next to swarms of ducks, swans, chickens and peacocks.

Day 4: After the half hour drive to Congaree, we took a wonderful morning walk on the boardwalk trail. Then we drove two hours to view the city of Charleston, SC. We tried to visit the Charles Pinckney NHS, but it was closed. It was another two hours of driving to reach Hiltonhead Island, SC where we stayed with family for the night. We loved staying at my aunts’ place and had a delicious meal and a lot of wine.

Day 5: We spent most of the day at my aunts’ house and taking a ride on their boat where we got to see dolphins! After lunch at their country club, we drove west and set up camp somewhere near Burrell’s Ford in Chattahoochee National Forest in order to start the Georgia Traverse overland route in the morning. If you have any interest in overlanding, I totally recommend it! It was the first true overland route we ever did with the 4Runner, and it was a perfect beginner route. Nothing too dramatic and no water crossings more than say 2 inches high in October. You could definitely do this route in a stock Subaru. We never went more than an hour without seeing other cars and hikers, and we actually did the entire route on one tank of gas. It was easy to pick and choose short parts to skip, and there were many towns right off the road with gas and restaurants.

Day 6: Following the Georgia Traverse GPX file, which you can find here, we hit the dirt roads. These are forestry service roads and largely packed dirt or mild gravel with short stretches of paved road. The trail is full of free dispersed camping sites and many hiking trails if you are interested. By dark, we set up camp in a nice clearing and slept so well to the sound of a tiny babbling creek. It stormed hard at night and we did hear trees going down nearby, so be wary about that when you pick your campsite.

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Day 7: To finish our overland route, we drove the Cohutta and Big Frog Wilderness Loop. Then we went to Marietta, GA to get dinner with a dear friend. We slept in the rooftop tent in her grandparents’ driveway without a hitch.

Day 8: After breakfast with my friend, we began the morning at the Martin Luther King, Jr. NHS in Atlanta. Sadly the visitor’s center was closed, but there were a few exhibits outside to browse. Afterwards we drove to Freedom Riders NM in Alabama. We intended on reaching Hot Springs that night, but unfortunately ran into big car issues when our tire literally shredded itself to pieces on the highway for no apparent reason (we would learn it was definitely a defective tire, not from running over something). Gabe changed the tire and then we called AAA to double check if it looked right as this was the first time we had to rely on our own mechanical work in the middle of such a long trip. Since then, Gabe’s pretty much become an expert at changing tires. Because it was so late by the time the tire was changed, we stayed the night at Econo Lodge & Suites in Brinkley, AK. Nothing special but nothing bad to say about this hotel.

Day 9: We drove the rest of the way to Hot Springs NP and enjoyed an afternoon exploring the area. We forced ourselves to stick our arms and legs in the natural springs, which were practically boiling! Sadly we didn’t have time to bathe at a bathhouse, but we had an Auggie to get home to (ok, and work). On our way home we made the worthwhile stop at Little Rock Central High School NHS (also closed, but with plenty of interesting information outside). Our approximately 2,700 mile journey concluded when we reached our home base in the St Louis area that night.