Jim Parham

The Blue Ridge begins in North Georgia, home to the southern terminus of the world-famous Appalachian Trail. Together with Southeast Tennessee, this region boasts thousands of miles of trails where backpackers can explore fabulous state parks, remote wilderness areas, and everything in between.Routes in this guide range from 3 to more than 21 miles. You’ll find destinations like the historic stone shelter atop Blood Mountain; the remote waterfalls at Three Forks, deep inside the Chattooga Wild & Scenic River corridor; and mile-high Stratton Bald along the Tennessee/North Carolina line. Choose a beginner-friendly trip with a clifftop view, rockhop across pristine mountain streams where swimming holes beckon on hot summer days, or challenge yourself on steep summit ascents.Each entry includes maps, complete driving and hiking directions, elevation gain, trail highlights, campsites, water sources, and trailhead GPS coordinates. You’ll also find invaluable information to help you choose gear, pick a route, and prepare for your backpacking adventure.

Veteran outdoor author Jim Parham recommends 59 excursions to help you find native wildflowers in bloom at any time of year in the North Carolina Mountains. Hikes range from .03 to 13 miles, and the guide includes reference sections for flower identification, preferred habitats, and a bloom calendar. Over 300 color photos, with destinations including Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, DuPont State Forest, the Appalachian Trail, and more.

The mountain bike trail guru who wrote the very first guidebook for the Southeast presents essential trail information to match the evolution of the sport. Recommended rides are grouped according to established trail systems within Tennessee and Georgia with full color maps and photos, GPS coordinates, important route details, and driving directions to every trailhead. It’s all the information you need to make the most of off-road cycling in north Georgia and southeast Tennessee, including the Atlanta and Chattanooga metro areas. Covers 128 routes over 1200 miles of mountain bike trails.

Jim Parham wrote the very first mountain bike guide to the Southeast. This, the most current guidebook for the Carolina mountains, recommends more than 105 bike routes. Whether you’re in the habit of shredding the region’s most technical trails or just getting started on a mountain bike, you’ll find what you need to get where you’re going in this guide for all skill levels. Detailed full color maps and concise directions cover destinations including Pisgah, DuPont, Bent Creek, Tsali Recreation Area, Panthertown, Paris Mountain, Hanging Dog, Issaqueena, Fant’s Grove, and more.

The Pisgah District of Pisgah National Forest is one of the oldest recreation destinations in the Southeast. Since its establishment in 1916 it has been a magnet for outdoor adventurers. Begun with a gift of land from the Vanderbilts, Pisgah is home to many famous natural and historic landmarks including Looking Glass Rock, Devil's Courthouse, Graveyard Fields, the Pink Beds, and Bent Creek.This concise guide describes 20 day hikes, 12 overnight hikes, and 29 mountain bike rides with trail details, maps, driving directions, and GPS coordinates for 18 trailheads. It also includes a section listing 21 waterfalls and how to get to them.

With over 40 miles of single track, western North Carolina's Tsali Recreation Area, where trails wind their way over rolling terrain along the shore of Lake Fontana just across from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has been a major Southeastern mountain bike destination since the 1980s. This waterproof color topo map shows routes for all four of Tsali's loops, including elevation profiles, the trail schedule for bikes and horses, and information on the USFS campground. It even suggests nearby forest road alternatives for riding when it's too wet at Tsali.

With 50 routes ranging from 3 to more than 30 miles, this guide features destinations like the pristine waterfalls of Panthertown Valley, the cliff overlooks of Linville Gorge Wilderness, and Shuckstack Tower in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At Naked Ground in Nantahala National Forest, you can watch the sunrise from your sleeping bag. Each overnight hike entry includes maps, complete driving and hiking directions, elevation gain, trail highlights, campsite locations, water sources, and trailhead GPS coordinates. You’ll also find information to help you choose gear, pick a route, and prepare for your backpacking adventure.

In north Georgia, hiking opportunities are virtually unlimited. With public lands in abundance, these mountains have hundreds of miles of designated hiking trails leading to clifftop views, through deep gorges, and over high summits—all within a few hours of metro Atlanta. This guide includes 65 of the best day hikes in the region, ranging from 1 to 14 miles, with destinations including Blood Mountain on the Appalachian Trail; the rugged cliffs of Mount Yonah; and the expansive views from Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest peak. Hike to Martha Berry's historic House of Dreams on the Berry College campus, or the remote waterfalls of Three Forks in Chattahoochee National Forest. Each entry covers everything you need to know to get out on the trail: maps, detailed driving and hiking directions, trailhead GPS coordinates, mileage, elevation gain, and more.

Jim Parham recommends 60 hikes to over 200 waterfalls in this hiking guide, which covers cascades—from famous, to obscure and remote—in wilderness areas, national forests, state parks, land trusts, and wildlife management areas. Routes range from easy strolls to 12 rugged miles, and each entry includes complete driving and hiking directions, distance and estimated hiking time, maps and elevation profile, trailhead GPS coordinates, and a description and photograph of each waterfall.

What do panning for gold, splashing in a spring-fed swimming pool, touring Civil War battlefields, rafting a wild and scenic river, exploring mysterious prehistoric Indian mounds, picking heirloom apples and visiting the seat of nineteenth-century Cherokee culture have in common? You and your family can find all these activities and dozens more in the mountains of north Georgia.Just a few hours from Atlanta, this region is rich in natural and human history. Hike to Brasstown Bald, tube a cool mountain stream in alpine Helen, search for stalactites in the Cave Spring Cave or simply tour the backroads to find the perfect picnic spot. For each activity or destination, the authors provide historical background, how-to information, or interesting facts. Find out when to go, what to expect and how to get there in this illustrated guide for adventurers of all ages.

Just a few short hours north of Atlanta, the Georgia mountains offer the best of all possible worlds for road bikers. A mild climate and nearly year-round cycling season, rolling blue ridges, tiny mountain towns and famous apple orchards all add up to a great cycling destination. From the historic Chickamauga Battlefield to the Brasstown Scenic Highway, from Helen to Ellijay to Rome, author Jim Parham lays out rides for all ability levels. Twenty-five of the region's best bike routes, ranging from 9 to 62 miles in length, are listed in this guide. Each route description includes complete directions, detailed map, elevation profile, road surface conditions, mileage and estimated riding times, points of interest and services available along the way.

Western North Carolina's Smoky Mountains offer road biking opportunities rarely found elsewhere. A broad network of backroads will take you rolling through rustic Appalachian communities, over high passes, past rushing waterfalls and along the shores of mountain lakes. The Blue Ridge Parkway, the Cherohala Skyway and the Scenic Waters Byway are all located in this region, where you can ride virtually all year long. Road Bike The Smokies outlines 16 of the best routes in the area, rated easy to difficult and ranging from 8 to 70 miles in length. Each route description includes complete directions, detailed map, elevation profile, road surface conditions, mileage and estimated riding times, points of interest and services available along the way.