The National Park System has to be one of our favorite things about the United States.  We have enjoyed hitting as many as we can during our two weeks a year vacation spans over the past 10 years, which has really only contributed to the bottleneck of automobile tourism in the park system.

Recently I have been reading Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey and this blog post is a nod to his viewpoints of our park systems and the greatness it can be.

The problem with most National Parks is that they allow cars in

Luckily we found a place cars couldn't go, a 10 mile hike to Mt. LeConte

Then you can really start enjoying the beauty of nature in "solitude"

Exploring Caves

Taking in Panoramic Views

and finding real natural spring fed water (the first this bottle has seen)

Spitting llama says what !?!

Contemplating why they call them the Smokey Mountains

Maybe when we have some more time we can hike the AT from End to End, anyone game?

For more pictures checkout the slideshow below (not visible from email, come visit the blog):