http://www.gsmr.com/ Just got back from a great family vacation trip to Bryson City, NC! Rented a nice, secluded cabin off the beaten path, near Bryson City. Saw maybe 12 cars in 3 1/2 days come by our cabin! Took the GSMR from Bryson City up thru the Nantahala Gorge. The train ride is awesome!! It only goes about 20 mph which is perfect for watching the scenery, taking pics, walking around the open-air car, etc. You can ride in a/c cars and pay more money, but I recommend the open-air cars! Gives you a much better feel for the country-side! You can wave at folks along the way, especially the rafters floating down the Nantahala River! Myself, my DD, and her boyfriend went Zip Lining on the Wild Water line ... the missus chose to ride back down!! ... her loss! http://wildwaterrafting.com/locations/wildwater-nantahala/ The zip-line or rafting is part of a package you can get when your order your train ride. I did the rafting several years back and highly recommend that, too! If you have never been zip lining, or rafting, or ridden a train, put it on your BUCKET LIST!! So much fun! btw, the GSMR goes from Bryson City EAST to Dillsboro and back, but I don't recommend that choice. Locals and RR folks said the ride from Bryson City west up the Nantahala Gorge is a MUCH BETTER route. oh, be sure to order the GSMR book for about $10. It's a great read and gives a lot of history and pics about the area. There's a RR museum in Bryson City, too, which we didn't have time to see, and also a museum about the Titantic, of all things! Basically, like all vacations, it was WAY TOO SHORT, and we had to head back home just as we were all starting to unwind! Such is life!
Glad you had fun. Sounds like a lot of fun. I am a big railroad fan. Is the Great Smokey Mtn Rail Road the line they used to film "the fugitive" with Harrison Ford?. I know the train scenes were filmed in Western NC.
Yes, the Fugitive bus/train crash scene was filmed at mile marker 48.8, just past the Hwy 441 underpass west of Dillsboro.
When jr was about 3 we did a train long weekend. Started off on Friday at Spencer and road Thomas the Tank Engine, then went to Great Smokey Mountain railroad on Saturday, then Tweetsie on Sunday. Lots of fun.
When Jr was 4 we got on the Amtrak in Cary, rode it to Wilson. Had a 3 hour layover, in which we went to small kids museum and library downtown, then rode it back. That was fun also.
