Plan a Wildflower Road Trip this Spring

Get a head start on camping season with a family travel road trip through the Southeast, following the Spacious Skies Campgrounds Spring Bloom Trail through Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. Traveling by RV or tent camping, your family will find wildflowers in meadows, woodlands, gardens and along the roadsides.

Of the 1,600 plant species along the Blue Ridge Parkway, north of Spacious Skies Hidden Creek campground in Marion, North Carolina, 80 percent are wildflowers. Rhododendron, Mountain Ash and Dogwood trees also bloom in the spring. Walk along the trails of North Carolina Arboretum to find woodland wildflowers.

Close to Spacious Skies Belle Ridge in Monterey, Tennessee, Cummins Falls State Park and Burgess Falls State Park are known for the wildflowers along their hiking trails. At Burgess, the Native Butterfly Garden beside the upper parking area has beautiful native wildflower displays.

While camped at Peach Haven in Gaffney, South Carolina, you can follow the Trillium Trail at Nine Times Preserve, known for its more than 134 varieties of wildflowers. Bring home flowers for your own garden at the Piedmont Plant & Flower Festival in late April.

Also in late April, the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival is filled with family activities. While camped at Sandy Run Campground in Fayetteville, North Carolina, take the kids to Cape Fear Botanical Garden, where there’s a children’s Nature Nook. Kids can get free Discovery Backpacks with magnifying glasses, scavenger hunts, binoculars, field guides and activities to enjoy during their visit.

More than 850 species of flowering plants bloom in the Shenandoah Valley, considered one of the best places in the country to see them. From a base campsite at Shenandoah Views

in Luray, Virginia, you can tour Shenandoah National Park and follow the beautiful Skyline Drive when the Dogwood and other trees are at their loveliest.