WHAT ARE THE BEST SCENIC DRIVES?
In SC the 115-mile Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway (SC11) arcs from I-85 at Gaffney, near the North Carolina border, almost to the Georgia border at Lake Hartwell State Park, passing peach orchards, quaint towns and piercing the Blue Ridge foothills. The Blue Ridge Parkway (001 828 298 0398; www.nps.gov/blri; www.blueridgeparkway.org) is one of the great drives of the world. Beginning in Virginia, the parkway winds and twists along mountain crests for some 470 miles. It passes through most of western North Carolina before halting at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (001 865 436 1200; www.nps.gov/grsm) near the Tennessee border, where 16 southern Appalachian peaks soar skyward to 6,000ft. A blue, smoke-like haze almost always hangs over the mountains and has done so for centuries – the name is translated from that used by First Nations tribes in days of old. Nature lovers should be aware that there is much commercialisation in the surrounding area. HOW DO I GET THERE? Fly – a m
