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May 19, 2025

Paws on the Trail: The Best Dog-Friendly Hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains

Planning a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park with your furry friend? While many trails restrict dogs, the Smokies still offer several dog-friendly hikes and scenic drives perfect for adventurous pups and their humans. From easy riverside walks on the Oconaluftee River Trail to scenic drives like Cades Cove Loop Road and Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, this guide covers the best pet-friendly trails and outdoor experiences to help you explore the Smokies together. Discover insider tips, local spots, and must-visit places to make your Smoky Mountains dog adventure unforgettable!

November 2, 2021

The Eerie Ghost Town In The Smokies

In the lush valley, where Jake’s Creek and the Little River meet, you can find the magical Daisy Town…

July 27, 2021

11 Must See Waterfalls In The Smokies

Looking for a waterfall hike in the Smokies? Check out these 11 Must See Waterfalls In Great Smoky Mountains…

July 20, 2021

Cades Cove: The Ultimate Guide to the Smokies’ Most Popular Valley

14 Fun Thing To Do In Cades Cove! Including to where to stay, where to eat, and what to do on your visit to Cades Cove…

May 11, 2021

Roaring Forks: 11 Reasons To Visit

There are so many reasons to visit Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail on your next trip to the Smokies…

April 6, 2021

Is Great Smoky Mountains National Park Dog-Friendly? A Realistic 2026 Guide to Visiting With Dogs

Is Great Smoky Mountains National Park dog friendly? Sort of. Dogs are allowed on two trails, in campgrounds and picnic areas, and along park roads, and that’s about it. Here’s the realistic 2026 guide to the pet rules, the parking tag, dog-friendly scenic drives, and the towns around the Smokies that love dogs way more than the park does.

Hi! I'm Vanessa, a 30 something, sunset chasing traveler. I'm here to inspire you to travel wherever, whenever, and with whoever you can. My Huskies, Loki and Freya are usually along for the ride. I have a soul that likes to wander, a desire to experience the unknown, and a curiousity to discover things off the beaten path. I hope you'll stick around for awhile!

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Recent Posts

  • Fall Road Trip Packing List: What To Actually Bring
  • The Ultimate Dog Hiking Gear List For National Parks
  • The Ultimate New England Fall Road Trip: A Six-State Foliage Loop (2026)
  • The Girls Trip Guide to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park
  • Acadia National Park October Guide: Fall Colors, Weather & What to Pack

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12 Reasons You Need To Visit Fundy National Park

One Fall Day in Salem, MA: An Hour-by-Hour Itinerary

The Ultimate Winter Guide to the Grand Canyon

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🍁🍂 October in Acadia is the kind of pretty that ma 🍁🍂 October in Acadia is the kind of pretty that makes you pull over every five minutes.

It’s also the kind of busy that can have you questioning every life choice you made that led you to Park Loop Road at 11 a.m. 😂

I stayed on Mount Desert Island for 6 months, and October taught me one thing: timing matters.

Go midweek if you can. Start early. Have a backup plan for parking. Know when the shuttle stops running. Don’t assume peak foliage will show up on the same date every year. And maybe don’t try to cram 14 things into one day just because they all looked good on Instagram.

The payoff? Golden leaves, pink granite, cool ocean air, and those ridiculous Acadia views that make all the logistical nonsense worth it. 🍂

I put everything I wish I knew before visiting Acadia in Octobe, including foliage timing, crowds, Cadillac reservations, parking, what’s actually open, and how I’d plan the trip now into my Acadia in October guide.

🍁🍂 Save this for your Maine trip, then go read the full guide ($) before you start planning 🍂🍁 

Comment Fall and I’ll send you a direct link when Instagram decides to let me send links again (ASAP, hopefully 🤞)

Would you brave peak foliage crowds for this view, or give me a quieter week?
I didn’t expect much from the Upper Peninsula. The I didn’t expect much from the Upper Peninsula. Then I spent a day in a fairytale forest chasing waterfalls.

Sable Falls: 168 stairs to Lake Superior.
Miners Falls: an easy mile through the northwoods to a 40-foot drop.
Tahquamenon: 200 feet wide, root-beer brown

And then a ranger told me about Laughing Whitefish Falls on the way to dinner. It wasn’t even on my lis5, and somehow became my favorite waterfall in Michigan.

Fall is the best time to do this. Nobody tells you that about the UP either!

Save this for next October or this one if you’re already planning! The full waterfall day, with trail lengths, passes, and dog rules is on the blog.
10+ years ago, I started saving pictures of camper 10+ years ago, I started saving pictures of camper vans. Today, I bought one. 😂

Meet the newest member of our already questionable travel plan: a Ram ProMaster 2500, high roof, completely empty.

No bed. No kitchen. No cabinets.

So naturally, we’re going to build it ourselves, and document the good ideas, bad ideas, and decisions we’ll absolutely regret.

3 years of full-time RV life taught us something: the places we love most are usually the places Betty can’t go.

National Forest campgrounds. State parks. Tiny NPS loops. Forest roads that look at a 40-foot travel trailer and say, “absolutely not.”

Betty stays home.
The van gets the weekends. 
Loki is a huge fan! 😂

Two humans. Three dogs. One 40-foot RV. One completely empty van. 

Because apparently one home on wheels wasn’t enough. 

She doesn’t have a name yet.

So…what should we call her? 👀
I lived less than an hour from Salem for 7 years, I lived less than an hour from Salem for 7 years, and every October I watched the same thing: people driving downtown, circling for parking, and spending the day in the Witch Museum line.

A million visitors. One town of 45,000. Halloween on a Saturday and the 400th anniversary this year. It’s going to be a lot.

So I wrote the version I’d hand a friend or tell them over coffee, because that’s what I do here ☕️ 

Two different guides, actually. 

🎃👻 The Salem in October Cheat Sheet is 6 pages you keep on your phone: the train, the ticket release times, the Halloween-night rules, one perfect weekday hour by hour, and the real Hocus Pocus addresses. 

🍁🎃 The Ultimate Salem Guide is the whole thing the shops, the food and cider, the dog version, where to actually sleep, the 1692 history, and the other eleven months.

Comment Witch and I’ll send you links to the Cheat Sheet ($), Ultimate Guide ($), and 10 of my free blog posts about visiting Salem in October! 🎃🍁
There’s a national park where wild horses wander d There’s a national park where wild horses wander down the middle of the road at sunset, and somehow, most people still don’t know where it is.

📍 🦬 Theodore Roosevelt National Park, western North Dakota.

Wild horses. Bison standing in the road at dusk. A herd disappearing into the river fog at sunset. The moon coming up over the badlands.

And you can see a ridiculous amount of it in 48 hours.

No reservations. No lines. Just the Loop Road, a whole lot of badlands, and bison who absolutely do not care that you’re in a hurry.

✨ Save this for the I-94 drive you were about to do in one shot ✨
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