Episode 103: A Vanlife Adventure Through Appalachia

In today's video, we take you on our vanlife tour of the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. We begin by driving the 105-mile Skyline Drive through Shenandoah national park, stopping to take in hikes along the ridges and short walks into the forests to see waterfalls. Then we stop at Cooters, Shenandoah Caverns, Celebration on Parade, and Natural Chimneys Regional Park before continuing south to James River and Holiday Lake state parks in southern Virginia. After a visit to the Waltons Mountain Museum in Schuyler VA, we visit Natural Bridges state park, a property once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Our next stop is in Trail Town USA, or Damascus VA, where we celebrate Trail Days with hikers on the Appalachian Trail and rent bicycles on the famous Virginia Creeper rail trail. Following the Blue Ridge Parkway, we enter Great Smoky Mountains national park and drive the scenic Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail, the Foothills Parkway, and the Cherohala Skyway, taking in the views of distant mountain ranges with the characteristic blue haze that gives the Smoky Mountains their namesake. We explore historic cabins and communities in Cades Cove and hike up the Kawohi Observation Tower in Great Smoky Mountains national park to conclude this leg of our vanlife journey.