Smoky Mountain National Park

With nearly 12 million visitors a year, Smoky Mountain National Park is, by far, the most visited of the 63 national parks. (#2 is Zion with less than 5 million). According to Google, this is driven, in part, by its location, as nearly 2/3 of Americans are less than a one-day car ride away. Having now been there, we are convinced that location is NOT the only reason. This is one of the most beautiful parks we have yet to see! You can literally spend an entire day hiking and/or driving throughout the park, and never once find the view to be anything less than amazing.

We visited in early May (which really helped with the crowds). The landscape was unbelievably lush and green, and the mountains, valleys, forests and rivers were all stunning.

Hiking In the Smoky Mountains

Hiking is definitely one of the more popular activities in the park. There are over 150 “official” trails spanning more than 800 miles. These range from a super easy stroll next to a bubbling mountain stream, to a 12-mile loop with steep, rugged terrain, relentless climbing, and a 4200-foot elevation gain! We opted to sample from amongst the full range!

The Gatlinburg Trail and the Oconaluftee River Trail are among the easier trails (each is less than 4 miles roundtrip and mostly flat), and are the only two dog-friendly trails in the park. Mack enjoyed both of them immensely and recommends them highly to his puppy pals! We found them to be a pleasant stroll through some lovely landscapes.

The Alum Cavetrail to Mount LeConte is one of the park’s most popular. It is an 11-mile loop, with a 3,000-foot elevation gain through some amazing scenery. While not the toughest, this was still the real deal (at least according to our legs who reminded us of our folly for the next couple of days!)

The famed Appalachian trail passes through the park. This gave us the opportunity to hike a very small portion of this 2200-mile footpath that winds from Georgia to Maine. This was definitely the most primitive of all the trails we hiked. We spent a lot of our time imagining how people could possibly do this every day for up to 7 months - all while sleeping on the ground every night! Way to go you through hikers!!!

The age-old Question...Does a Bear Sh#t in the woods?

YES! YES, it does!!

The age-old Question...Does a Bear Sh#t in the woods? YES! YES, it does!!

This hike also allowed us to answer the age-old question about bears and what they do, or don’t do, in the woods. Coming across a healthy and very fresh pile of bear scat (the name used in polite society) reminded us we weren’t in Kansas anymore and led directly to us pulling out our whistle and bear spray!

Cade Cove - Car Free

Given the narrow roads and high volume of traffic, cycling seems to be far less common. We did, however, see a few brave and/or foolhardy souls putting their lives on the line to enjoy the park from the seat of their bike. While we weren’t that daring, we were lucky enough to be in the park on one of the “car free” days at Cades Cove. Every Wednesday from May to September, the park halts car traffic in Cades Cove so cyclists and pedestrians can enjoy one of the most popular and beautiful areas of the park in relative safety. (Not total safety….don’t forget the bears!). We were warned repeatedly that we needed to get there early to ensure we got a parking spot. So, we were on the road at 5:30 to arrive before sunrise. We weren’t the first people there, but you could count the other cars on one hand. The ride is an 11-mile loop around a valley known for its natural beauty, history, and abundant wildlife. It certainly proved to have a lot of all three. Like the rest of the park, the valley is quite stunning which made for a very enjoyable ride. The star of the show though was the wildlife. We saw lots of wild turkeys, several deer, and, checking off a bucket list item, a few bears. Real bears in the wild! We even had a close encounter of the bear kind. We took a detour down a side road and came upon a bear foraging in the grass only a few yards away. It was super cool and a bit unnerving at the same time. We had a quick internal struggle between thinking how cuddly he (or she) looked, and knowing how fast they can run!

Scenic Drives

The third highlight for us were the scenic drives. If you want to (or need to) enjoy the park from the comfort and safety of your car, you have many options to choose from. The Newfound Gap transits the park from North to South and gives you a fantastic overview of the park. The Fork Motor trail is a 5.5 mile loop through dense hardwood forests. The road out to Cades Cove tracks next to a river most of the way and is simply amazing. Finally, the Foothills Parkway lets you skirt the edge of the park and offers amazing views looking into the mountains. You can’t go wrong with any of them.

In the spirit of no place is perfect…

As many of you know, we like the wacky stuff as much as the next person, BUT the area where we stayed while visiting the park pushed well past our boundaries. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, the northern gateways to the park, are both quintessential tourist traps. Imagine if Las Vegas, Branson, and Niagara Falls all got together in some weird sort of way and made a set of fraternal twin towns of their own. That should give you a pretty good idea of what this area is like. Suffice it to say we saw more pancake houses, alpine coasters, go cart tracks, dinner theaters, and Shoney’s restaurants than you could possibly imagine. (Yes, like you I thought all Shoney’s died in the 90’s!) The result was utter chaos, and more than enough to jump start your latent road rage!!

Smoky Mountains