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as well as a trail to the canyon floor (leave your flip-flops and Crocs at home, a permit is required, and those don’t make the cut). The Tallulah River and Falls are best viewed from the 80ft suspension bridge dangling above the rocky canyon bottom. Rock climbing is popular on the Main Wall on the North Rim. Though the river has been tamed by a series of Georgia Power hydroelectric dams, you can beef up on its once-mighty history and the biology of the area at the Jane Hurt Yarn Interpretive Center. From Atlanta, take I-85 (northbound) for 31 miles to I-985/Lanier Parkway/exit 113 (signs for Gainesville/I-985 North/Lanier Parkway) to Cornelia Hwy/Hwy 23 North and follow Hwy 23 for another 32 miles. Turn right on Jane Hurt Yarn Rd into the park.

See also Trips 34 & 35

OKEFENOKEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Established in 1937, the Okefenokee Swamp is a national gem, encompassing 396,000 acres of bog in a giant saucer-shaped depression that was once part of the ocean floor. The swamp is home to an estimated 9000 to 15,000 alligators, 234 bird species, 49 types of mammal and 60 amphibian species. The Okefenokee Swamp Park (www.okeswamp.com) has captive bears and gators on-site, or you can explore the swamp in a canoe or on a boat tour. The ultimate experience is a multiday canoe trip on the swamp’s 120 miles of waterways. Call the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Canoe Guide (www.fws.gov/okefenokee) if you’re considering a trip. Guided boat trips are also available. Warning: the water level in 2006 and ’07 was so low that water trips from the park were suspended indefinitely. From Savannah, take I-95 (southbound) to exit 29 (S Georgia Parkway, Hwy 82). Turn right on S Georgia Parkway, Hwy 82 (westbound). Stay straight onto Hwy 82 West/Hwy 520/Corridor Z/S Georgia Parkway for approximately 40 miles. Turn left onto Hwy 177 and follow for about 6 miles (you will cross Hwy 1 at the entrance to the park).

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TENNESSEE & KENTUCKY TRIPS

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Pulled Pork & Butt Rubs: Eating in Memphis

Going to Graceland: Touring the Shrine of Elvis

Memphis Music Tour

48 Hours in Nashville

Country Music Capital: Nashville

Tennessee Oddities

Outdoor Chattanooga

Mammoth Cave

48 Hours in Louisville

Kentucky Bluegrass & Horse Country

The Bourbon Trail

My Old Kentucky Home

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Tennessee and Kentucky, part of the geographic region known as the Upland South, reward road trippers with an accessible mix of pastoral countryside and quirky midsize cities.

Tennessee has three distinct regions, represented by the three stars on the state flag. In the east you’ll hike through the heather-colored Great Smokies exalted in Dolly Parton ballads. In the middle of the state you’ll check out the glittering honky-tonks of Nashville and ride horses through the lush farmland outside Shelbyville. In the Delta lowlands of the west, you’ll dig barbecue and blues in soulful Memphis.

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Tennessee and Kentucky provided the fertile soil for the country’s richest homegrown musical genres. Check out these all-American country, blues and bluegrass classics:

• “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” Bill Monroe

• “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Loretta Lynn

• “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” Flatt and Scruggs

• “Kentucky Rain,” Elvis Presley

• “Mountain Dew,” Grandpa Jones

• “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” Dolly Parton

• “Rocky Top,” Osbourne Brothers

• “Tennessee Blues,” Steve Earle

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Kentucky’s exquisite countryside makes it a prime road trip state. If there’s an afterlife, it might well look like the emerald hills of Horse Country, with poplar-shaded lanes and tall grasses swaying calmly in the wind. In Kentucky you’ll follow the Bourbon Trail, check out the million dollar thoroughbreds of Lexington and spelunk in the cool gloom of Mammoth Cave. The state has more than its fair share of American icons: Buy a Slugger in Louisville, eat some finger lickin’ chicken in Corbin and watch a Corvette coming off the line in Bowling Green.

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TENNESSEE & KENTUCKY