July/August 2024 (Author: J)
This is the beginning of a long overdue trip report for our 2024 summer vacation: a 3-week Southeast US road trip. I initially delayed writing the report because it felt odd to write about the trip right after Hurricane Helene impacted some of the places we visited. From there, inertia set in. But with a new year and new destinations ahead, I finally feel ready to look back on last year’s adventures.
Trip Backstory
I know that our family vacation time is limited (18 years, or maybe less if P boycotts family vacations as a teen). So, I would gladly let P pick our vacation destinations from now until he moves out. D does not feel the same way. After our 2022 trip to Singapore and Malaysia, D declared that he was “done with jungles.” P, a lifelong monkey fanatic, was by no means ready to be done with jungles – and has very little interest in the European history that D would gladly make the focus of 100% of our vacations.
So, I dictated a compromise. We now rotate selecting vacation destinations, meaning that we each pick the trips every 3rd year. D had the first pick in 2023, and selected Italy and Colombia. P surprised us with his pick for 2024 by requesting a road trip to Alabama (to see where our cat, Tarzan, was born), stopping at as many national parks as possible on the way.
With that mandate and help from the Tripadvisor road trip forums, I put together a couple of possible routes that included 5 national parks: Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, Congaree, New River Gorge, and Mammoth Cave. Once I had finished my research, we had a family meeting to select our final route. We agreed that our priority was to loop the destinations together in a way that minimized driving time. This meant skipping the Blue Ridge Parkway – a decision that I am sure some will question. But the reality is that P – like most kids – is unimpressed by scenic drives. And since this was his trip, cutting something that didn’t really appeal to him was an easy choice.
Here is what we wound up with.
Itinerary
Day 1: Drive from our house just north of Boston to Gettysburg, PA
Day 2: Drive from Gettysburg, PA to Shenandoah National Park
Day 3: Explore Shenandoah
Day 4: Begin driving from Shenandoah to Columbia, SC; stop in Charlotte for the night
Day 5: Continue on to Columbia, SC (and Congaree National Park)
Day 6: Explore Columbia area
Day 7: Begin driving from Columbia to Huntsville, AL; stop in Atlanta for the night
Day 8: Continue on to Huntsville
Day 9: Explore Huntsville
Day 10: Drive from Huntsville to Mammoth Cave National Park
Day 11: Explore Mammoth Cave
Day 12: Drive from Mammoth Cave to Gatlinburg, TN
Days 13-15: Explore Gatlinburg and Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Day 16: Drive from Gatlinburg to New River Gorge National Park
Days 17-18: Explore New River Gorge
Day 19: Begin driving from New River Gorge to Massachusetts; stop in NJ (to visit family) for the night
Day 20: Finish drive home
Highlights
Overall, we were very happy with the itinerary. We loved all the national parks, and we were pleasantly surprised with the bonus stops we added to break the drive up into manageable chunks. It was sheer luck that the way we structured our itinerary also ensured good weather. We very often arrived in a location just before or just after rain. Most notably, when Tropical Storm Debby hit Charlotte and Columbia during the 3rd week of our trip, we were west of most of the rain.
Our favorite destinations were:
D: Gettysburg
P: Rafting in New River Gorge
J: Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Travel Monkeys 