Flag of Tennessee
State of Tennessee
Capital » Nashville
(also largest city in the state)
Geography
- Area » 109,247 km2 (42,143 sq mi)
- A landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States
- It is bordered by Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the southwest, and Missouri to the northwest.
Overland
- Interstate 40 runs 731.95 km (454.81 miles) through Tennessee.
- from the Mississippi River at the Arkansas border to the Blue Ridge Mountains at the North Carolina border
- I-40 passes through Tennessee’s three largest cities—Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville
National Parks
- I-40 serves the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (NPS, Wikipedia), is located in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, covers 520,000 acres (800 square miles).
- Asheville, North Carolina makes the perfect home base for a day trip to the North Carolina Smokies.
- Oconaluftee Visitor Center, near Cherokee, North Carolina, is an ideal starting point.
- Free access, however, a parking pass required for any stops more than 15 minutes
- Scenic drives, hiking
- There are waterfalls throughout the park, with larger falls like Grotto, Laurel, Abrams, Rainbow, and Mingo drawing over 200,000 visitors per year.
Notes
- A slave state until the American Civil War, white nationalists, extremists, and terrorists continue to be present and a danger in Franklin and many regions of the state (The Tennessee Active Club is one of these » MSNBC)