National Park Week Feature: Great Smoky Mountains

I discovered my ideal climate cruising in a convertible through the Smokies in November.

Rent a sports car, drop the convertible top back and make your way to the mountains—it's National Park Week!

Exhilarate your inner adventurer in a natural wonderland. Honor your inner child by becoming a Junior Park Ranger. And satisfy your need to seek, on a road trip through one of our 63 national parks. That's Great Smoky Mountains National Park pictured above. Year after year, it's America's most visited park. Not Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but the Great Smokies of Eastern Tennessee. 

A few Novembers ago, I rented this zippy little, super-fun-to-drive, loved-me-as-much-as-I-loved-it, Camaro convertible. I took it from Tennessee to the Carolina Coast, down to Jacksonville, up into rural Georgia, then through the heart of Alabama. Little did I know when I flew into Knoxville, Tennessee to pick her up that there would still be fall foliage waiting to greet us at every turn through that scenic Southern state. 

The Great Smoky Mountains feel like a little 500,000-acre part of the West made its way east so we Northeasters would have a magnificent mountainscape to marvel over, closer to home. Thick forests, leaf-changing trees and one two-lane road winds past meandering creeks, falls and wildlife roaming freely. The feeling of being over the river and through the woods sets in and transports you to a world beyond our busy, bustling one.

Head to the park in June and you can catch a glimpse of a light show unlike any other, put on by Synchronous Fireflies. This specific species of fireflies glow as a group by the thousands, and no one really knows why. I love that element of mystery just waiting to be realized. If you're in the Smokies when it's warm, there are certain waterfalls you can swim right up to. Between beautiful foliage in autumn, then frozen waterfalls in winter and all the exciting opportunities the warmer seasons bring, there's never a bad time to explore the world's favorite park.

On your way to or from the park, stop in Asheville. It made my list of "Towns I Could Totally Live In." Yes, that is the exact title of a list I have stored and I'm forever adding to it and starring extra special cities and towns. But if you're heading to the Smokies, you might as well head to Asheville. And if you've made it as far as Asheville, (this is the exact mentality that turned my laughably labeled "Quick South Trip" into a six-state, 1,749-mile voyage), you might as well drive the Blue Ridge Parkway—easily one of the U.S.'s top 10 All-American Roads. Keep following it north, and eventually, you'll find Shenandoah National Park. 

I'll explore Shenandoah for the first time ever next month, as well as our newest national park: New River Gorge in West Virginia! I couldn't be more excited to finally hit the road again! It's been a long time since I've road-tripped out of the Northeast, and boy, do I have a few big adventures planned for my 2021 travel comeback. But more on those soon. For now, let's celebrate National Park Week and take full advantage of America's Best Idea. Happy National Park Week!