If you've ever driven through Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you know how slow that can be due to all the vehicles trying to negotiate the 11-mile loop road. Well, things are going to be a bit easier now thanks to a shuttle service that debuted today.

The work of photographer Ansel Adams is recognized and admired throughout the world, but the place most commonly associated with Adams is Yosemite National Park. A new exhibit opening at Carlsbad Caverns National Park this weekend will give the public its first look at a different part of the natural world through the eyes of this master of photographic art.

A few years ago we decided to brave the throngs of visitors and see Virginia’s fall display in Shenandoah National Park (where, ironically, the highest visitation month is October!) and drive the famed Skyline Drive. With the colors at their peak around our home in Pennsylvania, we figured that Shenandoah's forests would be nearing their peak as well.

George Washington may not have slept here, but Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson and plenty of other notables passed this way. A fall trip on the Natchez Trace Parkway provides a leisurely drive through a colorful landscape.