Southeast, USA

Four states are part of my road trip through the southeastern United States: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama. Georgia was the thirteenth colony founded by the British in North America in 1732. North and South Carolina were part of the British colony of Carolina, founded in 1663. In 1712 the colony was split into North and South. Both Georgia and the Carolinas were among the thirteen states that formed the United States after the Revolutionary War. Present-day Alabama was part of French Louisiana and Spanish West Florida from the early eighteenth century before it was admitted as a state in the United States in 1819.

The four states are located in what is commonly referred to as the South, and were part of the group of eleven states that seceded from the United States from 1860 to 1865 to form the Confederate States of America. They had an economy based on slavery until the Civil War and have had a history of segregation, racism, and violence against African Americans well into the twentieth century. A history that will come to the fore a lot during this road trip.

Itinerary

Atlanta – Amicalola Falls State Park – Tallulah Gorge State Park – Great Smoky Mountains National Park – Blue Ridge Parkway – Asheville – Table Rock State Park – Greenville – Congaree National Park – Charleston – Savannah – Providence Canyon State Park – Montgomery – Selma – Birmingham

Atlanta

Just before 5pm on Friday afternoon, after a flight of almost ten hours, I arrive at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. Passport control is quick and I’m allowed to enter the United States without any problems.

To pick up my rental car, I first have to take a shuttle to the car rental center. The shuttle takes a long time to arrive and once I arrive at the rental company, my car is not ready yet. Almost two hours after landing, I finally get the keys to my rental car, a virtually new Toyota Prius Hybrid. My biological clock is well past midnight as I navigate the busy highways around and into Atlanta, which goes smoothly only thanks to my navigation app. The next morning I am ready to explore the city.

Atlanta has over 500,000 inhabitants and is sometimes called the Capitol of the South. It is the capital of the state of Georgia, nicknamed the Peach State. This nickname is reflected in one of the most important streets in Atlanta: Peachtree Street. This street runs right through the heart of the city, from Midtown to Downtown. The most striking building on Peachtree Street is the Fox Theatre. Since 1929, concerts, shows and movies have been held here. Across from the Fox Theatre is the historic Georgian Terrace Hotel, where many celebrities have stayed since it opened in 1911. Also on Peachtree Street is the 55-story headquarters of the Bank of America. The red-brown skyscraper is the tallest building in Atlanta and cannot be missed in the otherwise fairly modest Atlanta skyline.

In the heart of downtown you will find the Centennial Olympic Park, built on the occasion of the 100th modern Olympic Games, which were held in Atlanta in 1996. On the edge of Centennial Olympic Park is the Center for Civil & Human Rights. I would have liked to visit it, but unfortunately it’s closed for renovation during my stay in Atlanta.

On the south side of downtown Atlanta is the Georgia State Capitol, built in 1889 in the same neoclassical style as the US Capitol Building in Washington DC. With the difference that the large dome of the Georgia State Capitol is gilded. Apart from the wealth that the gold is supposed to radiate, Atlanta is not really a beautiful city in my opinion. Downtown and Midtown are a mix of modern and historic buildings, with a modest skyline and quite a lot of public art and street art, but Interstate 85 cuts right through the heart of the city, I see a lot of homeless people and empty and/or dilapidated houses and buildings everywhere.

As I walk from downtown towards the Eastside district, I pass a historic marker at the intersection of Marietta Street and Peachtree Street, which indicates that Jacob’s Pharmacy was located here. This is where in 1886 the first glass of Coca Cola was sold. Two years later, businessman Asa Candler would buy the property rights to the new drink and in 1892 he founded the now world-famous Coca Cola Company.

Via Auburn Avenue I walk into the Eastside district and soon arrive at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, in honor of the life and work of the civil rights leader and one of the most famous Americans in history. There’s a Visitor Center that chronicles King’s life, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where King was pastor, and the tombs of King and his wife. The tombs are on a circular island in a long pond. The adjacent historic district of small wooden houses also houses King’s birthplace (currently being renovated).

A little further along, I grab lunch at Krog Street Market, which is somewhat confusingly a food hall. The food hall is located right on the Atlanta Eastside Beltline Trail, a former railroad that has been redeveloped. It’s now a nearly five kilometer long park-like pedestrian zone, perfect for walking, running, or biking. It reminds me of the High Line in New York City and has quickly become my favorite place in Atlanta.

Amicalola Falls State Park and Tallulah Gorge State Park

On Sunday morning I leave Atlanta via Interstate 85 North. The first hour I drive down the wide interstate through the suburbs of Atlanta, then my navigation app points me towards a two-lane state highway, which winds through the hills of northern Georgia.

After an hour and a half of driving I arrive at Amicalola Falls State Park. Here I decide to walk the East Ridge Trail. It’s still chilly, but the sun is shining in a cloudless blue sky. The trail gradually climbs up between the trees. Along the way there are a few places with wide views over the green valley through which the Amicalola Creek flows. After forty minutes of climbing I arrive at the top of the 222 meter high Amicalola Falls, the highest waterfall in the southeastern United States. Stairs lead down (or up if you came here via another trail) to the foot of the spectacular waterfall.

A half hour drive from Amicalola Falls State Park is the town of Dahlonega. In 1828, Dahlonega was the scene of the first gold rush in the United States. The town has a small historic center around a central square. In the middle of that square is the Lumpkin County Courthouse, built in 1836 (now a gold rush museum). Around the square are wooden buildings from the nineteenth century, which give the town an atmospheric historical character.

After lunch in Dahlonega, it’s an hour’s drive to Tallulah Gorge State Park. The Tallulah Gorge is a three-kilometer long and three-hundred-meter deep gorge in the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The gorge was eroded by the Tallulah River. I walk along the North Rim Trail, which, as the name suggests, runs along the northern edge of the gorge. There are several viewpoints, the best view is at viewpoint number two, where you have a beautiful view over the length of the gorge and the roaring water of the river down below. A series of stairs take you to a suspension bridge over the water that connects the north rim to the south rim (but the latter is currently closed for maintenance).

After my visit to the Tallulah Gorge I drive across the state line between Georgia and North Carolina. I spend the night in the town of Franklin, which is nothing more than a stopover on the way to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The hills are getting higher and higher as I drive to the Great Smoky Mountains the next morning. The Great Smoky Mountains are located on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee and are part of the Appalachian Mountains, the mountain range in the east of North America that runs from Canada to Alabama.

This vast area was once covered with dense primeval forests. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, more and more people settled in the area and large parts of the forests were cut down for timber and to clear agricultural land. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the desire to preserve the Great Smokies grew and in 1934 a large part of it became the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Since 1983, this park has been a UNESCO World Heritage site. The park is free to enter and is the most visited national park in the United States.

Highway 441, better known as the Newfound Gap Road, begins at the town of Cherokee. This road runs right through the national park and connects Cherokee in North Carolina with Gatlinburg on the other side of the mountains in Tennessee. It’s a beautiful scenic drive. The two-lane road winds over the mountains, with a different view of the forested mountain slopes around every bend. There are many viewpoints along the Newfound Gap Road where you can stop to take it all in. The spring weather is beautiful, but from the trees you can tell it’s only April; many trees are still bare at this altitude or are just starting to grow leaves. As a result, the surroundings are less green than I had expected., but the views are nevertheless beautiful.

I also stop at Mingus Mill, a wooden water-powered grain mill from 1886. Right on the border of the two states, at an altitude of 1,540 meters, lies the mountain pass Newfound Gap. Here you have a wide view of the Great Smokies, but if you ask me this is not the most beautiful viewpoint. Near Newfound Gap is the turnoff to Kuwohi. This mountain was called Clingmans Dome for a long time, but now again bears the name the Native Americans gave it. At 2,025 meters, Kuwohi is the highest mountain in the Great Smokies. From the Newfound Gap Road, a ten kilometer long road with various viewpoints winds up the mountain. From the parking lot, it’s a short walk up to an observation tower, where you have a great panoramic view of the Great Smoky Mountains.

After stops at various viewpoints and a short walk through the forest near the Sugarlands Visitor Center, I drive to Gatlinburg, where I spend the night. In my opinion, Gatlinburg is absolutely terrible. It’s not an authentic town, but a kind of amusement park; the main street is a series of entertainment venues and fast food chains. There are mainly American tourists, an above-average number of obese people (even by American standards), and way too many Trump souvenirs…

The next day I visit another part of Great Smoky National Park: Cades Cove. After a night of rain, luckily it’s another beautiful sunny day. The road from the Visitor Center to Cades Cove is a beautiful scenic route. The two-lane road runs along the Little River through a long valley between the Great Smoky Mountains.

After a mere ten minutes of driving, I see a few cars at the side of the road. There must be something to see there. And there is: between the vegetation I spot a black bear with two cubs. They seem to be looking for food among the greenery. They are about twenty meters from the road (and from me), but they do not seem to care about the presence of more and more people and cars. I have seen bears in the wild before, but it’s still a special thing every time.

After an hour I arrive at the start of the Cades Cove Loop Road, a seventeen kilometer long one-way road that runs through the beautiful valley, surrounded by the Great Smoky Mountains. Cades Cove was once home to the Cherokee. In the first half of the nineteenth century, European settlers arrived, drove out the Cherokee, cleared the forest for farmland, and built log cabins, barns, water mills, and churches. Some eighty homes and other buildings have been preserved in the picturesque valley. They offer a glimpse into the lives of settlers two hundred years ago.

As I drive back along the same scenic route, I spot another black bear among the trees not far from the road. This one is alone. A little later I pass a group of elk, one of which is not far from the road and the others are resting under the trees a little further away.

Blue Ridge Parkway and Asheville

Back in North Carolina, I spend the night in the small town of Cherokee, which seems to consist only of motels and souvenir shops. From here, the next day (Wednesday, a chilly but sunny morning), I drive a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of the most popular scenic byways in the United States. The parkway runs from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, right through the Blue Ridge Mountains (which are also part of the Appalachian Mountains).

Parts of the parkway are still closed due to the damage caused by hurricane Helene in September 2024. This major hurricane, one of the strongest ever measured in the US, raged across Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, causing heavy rains and flooding, and leaving a trail of destruction. From Cherokee, the first fifty miles or so of the parkway have now reopened. The road winds over the peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains, at an altitude of 1,200 to 1,500 meters. There are many viewpoints along the road with wide views. Here too, it’s not very green yet and most trees are still bare. In the summer it must really be a sea of ​​green…

In the afternoon I drive to Asheville, a town on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The historic downtown is a bit quirky; a mix of old and modern buildings, many boutique shops, art galleries and cafés.

Table Rock State Park and Greenville

On Thursday morning, on my way from Asheville to Table Rock State Park, I cross the border between the states of North and South Carolina. Table Rock State Park is located in the so-called foothills, the rolling hills between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the lower, flatter coastal areas. The park is named after Table Rock Mountain, a 952-metre-high granite table mountain. It is one of those places that is not on the radar of international travelers, but offers a wonderfully quiet, green environment to enjoy the outdoors. I walk the almost four kilometer long Carrick Creek Trail, through the forest that, following hurricane Helene, recently survived a forest fire, and past numerous small waterfalls in the Carrick Creek.

In the afternoon I drive to Greenville. This town has a beautifully maintained downtown. On the south side of Main Street is the Falls Park on the Reedy, a name that refers to the Reedy River that flows through the center of Greenville. The park is built around the waterfall in the river. From the modern Liberty Bridge you have a beautiful view of the waterfall.

Congaree National Park

On Friday a long drive is on my itinerary, from Greenville, in the foothills, to Charleston, all the way on the coast. Halfway I visit Congaree National Park. This park protects 110 square kilometers of so-called ‘old-growth floodplain forest’. On either side of the Congaree River lies low-lying land that floods after heavy rainfall. This floods the forest, but the floods also provide fertile soil. Much of the southeastern United States was once covered with such ‘floodplain forests’. They have almost completely disappeared, except for a small part in Congaree National Park.

It’s sunny and warm (about 25 degrees) as I combine the Boardwalk Trail from the Visitor Center with the Sims Trail, into a loop of about eight kilometers. Along the way I encounter many squirrels, a woodpecker and an owl. The forest is full of large cypress trees, which can grow to be more than a thousand years old, and up to forty meters high. Around the cypress trees you can see a kind of roots sticking out above the ground, which are strangely enough called ‘knees’, while they look more like fingers. These are part of the extensive root system of the cypress trees, although it’s not entirely clear what they are for. It looks a bit creepy though.

After my visit to Congaree National Park I drive to Charleston. I spend the night in North Charleston, from where I visit downtown Charleston the next day (a Saturday).

Charleston

Charleston was founded in 1671 by the British and named after the then king of the British Empire. It’s only a ten-minute drive from my motel in North Charleston to downtown. I park my rental car in a parking garage at Marion Park and then walk along King Street towards the Historic District. It quickly becomes clear to me that Charleston has an atmospheric center with many historic buildings and cobblestone streets. It’s like stepping back in time.

On the corner of Market Street and Meeting Street is the old Market Hall, built in 1841 (now a museum). A little further on, on Chalmers Street, is the place where a large slave market was held from 1856, called The Mart. Charleston was an important hub in the North American slave trade: almost half of all slaves who arrived in the United States arrived in Charleston. During the Civil War, the slave market was bombed by the Union army, but the slave trade in Charleston would continue until the end of the war in 1865.

I walk along Meeting Street, past Washington Square (with of course a statue of the first president of the United States) and the intersection of Meeting Street and Broad Street, where the snow-white St. Michael’s Church stands, built in 1752. At the same intersection are Charleston’s City Hall and the Court House. If you walk to the end of Broad Street, you come to the Old Exchange, the customs house from 1771 (now a museum). It’s also worth walking into a side street every now and then, such as Tradd Street, a cobblestone street with houses that date back to before the American Revolution.

The Old Exchange is on East Bay Street, where you will also find Rainbow Row. In colonial times, these thirteen Georgian row houses were shops and residences of wealthy merchants, overlooking the wharves on the Cooper River. The houses were built between 1720 and 1790. In the nineteenth century they fell into disrepair, but in the first half of the twentieth century they were restored and provided with pastel-colored facades, which is why they are now known as Rainbow Row. Charleston is located at the mouth of the Cooper River and the Ashley River where they flow into the Atlantic Ocean. On the banks of the Cooper River is Waterfront Park, overlooking Charleston harbor, and a striking fountain in the shape of a pineapple. Looking out over the water, on a clear day you can see Fort Sumter. This is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1860.

Church Street is a series of eighteenth-century houses. Most are made of stone, with wooden porches on each floor (most houses have two or three floors) which, remarkably, are located on the side of the house instead of the street side (or the houses are built with their sides facing the street…). Many of the houses have a sign that tells which wealthy Charleston resident had the house built and when, most in the eighteenth and some in the nineteenth century.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to an American city with such a well-preserved historic center. Incredibly beautiful, photogenic, atmospheric, with lots of greenery too. But… you can’t ignore Charleston’s dark history. Those beautiful homes in Charleston’s Historic District were built by slaves, commissioned by slave owners, who made their fortunes from the slave trade and slave labor in a slavery-based economy…

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were many plantations in the Charleston area, often owned by the same family for generations. These plantations are of course closely linked to slavery as well. Cotton, rice, and tobacco are no longer grown here (some plantations have switched to fruit), but you can still visit a number of them today, such as Boone Hall Plantation north of Charleston, and Drayton Hall and Magnolia Plantation west of Charleston.

The latter two are located on the Ashley River Road National Scenic Byway. Drayton Hall was built by slaves in 1738 for the Drayton family, and is the oldest surviving plantation home in the United States. Rice and indigo were grown on the plantation. Magnolia Plantation, a rice plantation also owned by the Drayton family, is even older, dating back to 1676, although the plantation house is post-Civil War; the original plantation house was destroyed during the Civil War. It’s the oldest plantation in the Carolinas.

Savannah

From Charleston I drive to Savannah in two hours, bringing me back to the state of Georgia. Just like Charleston, Savannah is a medium-sized historic city, located on the east coast of the United States on the Atlantic Ocean. Savannah is located on the Savannah River, which separates Georgia from South Carolina. I park the car in a parking garage on the edge of the Historic District.

The Historic District in downtown Savannah is full of historic houses and has no fewer than 22 green park-like squares. After every two streets or so you come to another square with trees, benches and often a statue or fountain. They are small green oases in a city center that has a lot of greenery anyway, because many streets also have large moss-covered trees.

Via Orleans Square I walk to Telfair Square, where two museums are located: the Telfair Academy and the Jepson Center for the Arts. In front of the former are a number of statues of famous artists, including the Dutch painter Rembrandt. I continue north to Ellis Square. This square was once called Market Square; on the west side was and is the City Market, the center of trade in Savannah from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Until the Civil War, there was also a slave market here. On the corner of the City Market is the brick Montmollin Building, named after the slave trader who had it built for his trade. In 1864, the Union recaptured Savannah, confiscated the building and donated it to the local African American community, who turned it into a school for black children in 1865.

The Prohibition Museum is also located at the City Market. In 1735, Savannah was the first city in the United States to implement prohibition. At the end of the City Market is the First African Baptist Church, the oldest African-American church in the United States. The church played an important role in the Underground Railroad, the network that smuggled slaves from the South to the free North.

Down old stairs, you can descend to the lower River Street. This cobblestone street is lined with tall old warehouses, which now house restaurants, cafés and shops. On the other side of River Street, a promenade runs along the Savannah River. The Georgia Queen, the largest classic riverboat in the United States, is moored at the quay. Despite its 19th-century appearance, this boat was built in 1995.

The Savannah City Hall, which opened in 1906, originally had a copper dome, but this has been gilded since 1987. A little further along is the Old Savannah Cotton Exchange from 1887. At that time, the port of Savannah was one of the most important trading places for cotton worldwide. On the other side of Bay Street is the neoclassical United States Customs House, built between 1848 and 1852.

Via Johnson Square (the oldest square in Savannah) and Wright Square I pass Oglethorne Square (named after the founder of Savannah), Chippewa Square (with a statue of Oglethorne), Madison Square and Lafayette Square. In between are lush green streets, such as Oglethorne Avenue and Jones Street, both with beautiful historic houses on each side and large, moss-covered oak trees. Via Monterey Square I finally arrive at Forsyth Park, a large park with a fountain dating from 1858.

Savannah is extremely photogenic and atmospheric due to the historic buildings, the leafy streets and green squares. The city has its own character, exudes southern charm, and there is a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. It might be my favorite city in the southeastern United States.

Providence Canyon State Park

On Thursday it’s a long drive of 4.5 hours to Providence Canyon State Park. The first half I drive down Interstate 16 West, then I continue my way on smaller state highways. Early afternoon I arrive at Providence Canyon State Park.

Providence Canyon is nicknamed Georgia’s Little Grand Canyon. The Canyon Loop Trail takes you to the bottom of the canyon, where a thin layer of water flows over the red-brown earth. Then you can walk through the various branches of the canyon, between the forty to fifty meter high rock walls, with beautiful rock formations, from sand-colored to rust-brown.

The remainder of the Canyon Loop Trail goes up through the forest back to the rim, and further along the rim with a great view over the canyon. It’s surely not the Grand Canyon, but Providence Canyon is very beautiful and definitely worth it.

Montgomery and Selma

“Welcome to sweet home Alabama” says the sign as I drive ocross the state line. Alabama is the fourth and last state that I visit during this road trip.

Montgomery is the capital of Alabama. This is where in 1861 the Southern Convention took place, where the Confederate States of America was formed and Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy on the steps of the State Capitol. (Just a few months later, the capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, Virginia.)

In my opinion, Montgomery is not a beautiful city, nor is it an atmospheric city. Downtown is a rather desolate place on a Wednesday morning. The city looks poorer than the ones in the neighboring state of Georgia, and when I drove into the city I saw many empty and dilapidated houses; entire streets seemed deserted.

My stops in Alabama are related to the civil rights movement and to the troubled past of the southern United States. A past that is inextricably linked to segregation, racism and violence. Of course, that past is not just about Alabama and applies equally to Georgia and the Carolinas, but a number of historical events are inextricably linked to Alabama.

Such as the Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery. On March 21, 1965, the march began in Selma, led by Martin Luther King Jr. The demonstrators, demanding their constitutional right to vote, marched along US 80 and arrived three days later, escorted by federal troops because Governor Wallace refused to protect the demonstrators. The march was a major catalyst for the passage of the Voting Rights Act, President Johnson’s bill that Congress passed in the summer of 1965, finally giving African Americans their constitutional right to vote.

The Selma to Montgomery march ended at the Alabama State Capitol, where Governor George Wallace, a fervent advocate of segregation, held sway. 25,000 people filled Dexter Avenue, the street in front of the State Capitol. I walk up the steps of the building where King addressed the crowd and look out over Dexter Avenue, trying to imagine what it must have looked like that day. On the left side of the street is still the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where King was pastor from 1954 to 1960 and organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955.

I also visit the Civil Rights Memorial Center, a small memorial space dedicated to African Americans who were murdered by police or white supremacists. At Court Square, a square with a large fountain in the center, was one of the largest slave markets in the South in the 19th century. At the corner of Court Square and Dexter Avenue is the bus stop where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. Her refusal triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A statue of Parks marks the spot.

A little over an hour’s drive west of Montgomery is Selma, the town where the march to Montgomery began. The Edmund Pettus Bridge is located here. On March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday took place here, when the police violently suppressed the first attempt by the demonstrators to march to Montgomery. I drive across the bridge into Selma and stop on the other side to take a picture and reflect on the terrible events that took place on that bridge, and the horrors of segregation and racism that were so deeply ingrained in this part of the United States.

Today, Selma looks sad and dilapidated. It’s one of the poorest cities in Alabama, with one in three residents living below the poverty line.

Birmingham

My last stop in Alabama, and on this trip, is Birmingham. After parking my car, I walk to Kelly Ingram Park in the heart of downtown Birmingham. In May 1963, this park (then called West Park) and the surrounding streets were the scene of violent confrontations between peaceful African American protesters and heavily armed police. The park is now a kind of monument to the violence that civil rights activists faced in the Birmingham of the white supremacist mayor Bull Connor in the 1960s.

Kelly Ingram Park borders 16th Street, where on the corner stands the 16th Street Baptist Church. This church (like many other African American churches) played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement and was the target of a bombing by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1963, killing four children. This attack (one in a series of attacks) caused great outrage throughout the United States and was a catalyst for the creation of the Civil Rights Act, which President Johnson would sign a year later.
Opposite the 16th Street Baptist Church is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The museum tells the compelling story of segregation, the Civil Rights Movement and the resistance against it.

I also walk around downtown, with several historic buildings, including the Alabama Theatre, built in 1929. Walking around downtown Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham feels very different from walking around downtown Atlanta, Charleston or Savannah. It all looks poorer, there are many vacant buildings and there are few people on the streets. Somehow it feels Atlanta, Charleston and Savannah have moved on from their past, while Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham haven’t…

In the afternoon I drive to my motel near Oxford, about halfway between Birmingham and Atlanta. After two weeks my road trip through the southeastern United States is over. It’s been an attractive combination of the beautiful outdoors, charming cities and an interesting, if not always cheerful history.