Hole In The Donut Travels

After five weeks on the road it was time to head home, but not before one last day of hiking. From the North Carolina mountain town of Cashiers, I mapped a route past Gorges State Park, which opened to the public this past May. Located atop the Blue Ridge Escarpment, this newest North Carolina park [...]

“I wonder where that road goes?”
Some insatiable curiosity has always compelled me to take the path less traveled, searching for little known landmarks, attractions, or beautiful vistas that I am certain lie along its route. I simply cannot resist the allure of the unknown. So when I returned from my westbound trek on the Silver [...]

Seems I have a hard time staying in one place for very long. I am on the road again, headed for Chicago to attend two blogging conferences: BlogHer and TravelBlogExchange. As usual, I am wandering a bit. In Smyrna, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) I stopped to check out the Silver Comet Trail, the longest [...]

By the time I crossed over into northeast Georgia from the mountains of North Carolina, I was tired. For days, I’d been hiking back country trails, shimmying down river embankments, and clambering over rocky cliff faces in search of waterfalls. But when I rolled into Tallulah Falls, Georgia, I realized there would be no rest [...]

Deep within the Nantahala Forest, a glittering emerald valley emerges from encircling 5,000-foot high peaks. Sunshine streams down through crisp pine-scented air, illuminating the distant craggy stone faces of Yellow Mountain, Rock Mountain, and Chimney Top, standing sentinel around the valley. In the surrounding woods, spongy footpaths carpeted with last winter’s detritus follow rushing [...]

Although rain never puts a damper on my travels, sunny skies are usually preferable when I am on the road. There is, however, one exception; rain is a bonus when hunting waterfalls. Since I was in southwestern North Carolina for my annual real estate continuing education classes, I decided to hike to Hickory Nut Falls, [...]

Having thoroughly explored the historic architecture in Dunnellon’s Historic Boomtown District, I turned my attention to natural attractions during my second day in this north central Florida town. As home to Rainbow Springs, Florida’s fourth largest natural spring which disgorges 416 million gallons of water each day, and the meeting place for the Withlacoochee and [...]

I saw them before I heard them. On the distant horizon a line of tiny black specks appeared in the crystal blue sky. From their classic ‘V’ formation I knew they were Canada Geese. As I watched, thousands more rose from behind the distant treeline that marked the river, broke into smaller flocks, and circled [...]

God was a careless artist when he created Maine. He did not dab with a paintbrush. He did not splash. He poured beauty over the State. Nowhere is this magnificence more evident than in Acadia National Park, which occupies nearly half of Mount Desert Island and a scattering of smaller islands off the coast of [...]