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We are planning a road trip mid to late May 2012 from western NC to Anderson (near Houston) Texas. After visiting part of the Blue Ridge Parkway we intend to start our journey in the Great Smokey Mountains and I would welcome advise on the best route. We are looking for the most scenic route (not the shortest perhaps) and would like to avoid the big towns. We are English (no children) and never visited the area before. We intend to hire a car and allow four or five days for the journey.
Welcome aboard RTA!
You've come to a good place, and the first advice we'd give you is to get a really good USA map or atlas, and see what routes strike you. Four days from NC to Houston area is not a long time if you want to sight-see in the Great Smokies, for instance. In a good USA map or atlas, the scenic highways will usually be annotated in some way, such as a dotted line or similar.
Donna
There is, of course, no single 'best' route for any trip, only a number of good choices. That is certainly true in your case. Just to list a few of the options you should look at to see which one appeals most to you include:
Head west through southern Tennessee on US-64 through Chattanooga and Shiloh National Military Park to the Natchez Trace Parkway down to the Mississippi River, then finish up on US-84/LA-28/LA-8/TX-63/US-190/US-59 to Houston
Follow the National Forests by continuing down the Appalachians through Cherokee, Chattahoochee, Talladega, Bienville, Homochitto and Kisatchie National Forests, and end up going through Big Thicket National Preserve. This would avoid pretty much all the big cities and/but would require some fairly good navigational skills to follow a collection of smaller state and forest service roads.
Go directly south through Georgia, hitting FDR's Little White House on the way to Panama City and then follow the Gulf Coast to and through Gulf Islands National Seashore, New Orleans, and the Creole Nature Trail.
Each of those routes however would require a minimum of three days to enjoy so, as Donna pointed out, you're going to have to engage in some serious time management.
AZBuck
Thank you both for your prompt response. My first step will be a good road atlas and I think Donna is right and we need to allow more time. This should not be a problem and subject to further research heading west into Tennessee and then south west looks interesting. Thank you both again.
Richard
Yes, that was my first choice as well when I made this general drive. Some of the places you'll want to check out include Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Columbia TN, Shiloh National Military Park, Tupelo MS, the Natchez Trace Parkway, Jackson MS, Natchez MS, the Creole Nature Trail , and the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge.
AZBuck