Great Smoky Mountains National Park
We were excited to finally visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park since we had to cancel our last trip when I hurt my back. We knew that the park was one of the most popular in the park system and that Gatlinburg would be crowded, but even in April we were shocked at the crowds.
Since we knew Gatlinburg would be crowded we decided to stay in Pigeon Forge. Little did we realize that a rod run/car show was scheduled for the following weekend, which meant lots of people arriving to get ready for the show, but we did get to see some really cool old cars. We’ve never seen so many people on scooters cruising the strip to see all the cars!
An important thing to note about the park is that a national park pass does not work here, they have special parking passes that you can either purchase daily or weekly. Since the Appalachian Trail traverses the park, spending some time on the trail is a must. We decided to hike a very small portion from the Newfound Gap Overlook. The overlook is well worth a stop; you can stand in North Carolina on one side and Tennessee on the other, take in some beautiful views, and you might even spot some thru-hikers.
Clingmans Dome is located right after Newfound Gap and has the most amazing views. If you can make a short, but very steep trek up to the observation tower you are in for even more spectacular views. After we walked up to the observation tower we hiked to Andrews Bald. I first heard about the bald mountains in Bill Bryson’s book A Walk in the Woods, which I highly recommend. I laughed a lot, but also learned about the ecology and history of the Appalachian Mountains.
Our biggest mistake of the trip was going to the Cades Cove area of the park. I would avoid this area at all costs unless you enjoy traffic jams and inconsiderate drivers. There is a good chance you will see a bear in this area (we did!), which is probably why it’s so popular. We went to the area to hike to Abrams Falls which is on the Cades Cove Loop Road. When we planned this hike we did not realize that the Cades Cove Loop Road is on a one way, very narrow road, so once you are on it you are stuck and you cannot pass people. There are spots for cars to pull over to let faster cars pass, but people didn’t seem to want to use them. We also did not realize it would be so crowded and when people are driving 5 mph and stopping in the middle of the road to look at something, it was beyond frustrating. And then to top it all off, when we arrived at the turnoff for Abrams Falls, the road was closed. There were no signs anywhere indicating that the trail/road was closed before we got on the road. Needless to say this was not our best day at the park. To try and make up the disastrous morning at Cades Cove we stopped at The Sinks and hiked some of the Meigs Creek trail.
My favorite hike of the trip, but also the hardest was to Rainbow Falls. It was a steady hike uphill to a beautiful spot to view the falls. It would have been awesome to see the falls after a heavy rain. It was hard to find any hikes that were easy, almost all have some elevation gain, but we were definitely tired after hiking to Rainbow Falls.
Of course while we were there we had to visit the Buc-cee’s in Sevierville, the largest gas station in the world. It was well worth the stop, they had everything you could think of and more, plus they had the cleanest bathrooms I’ve ever seen at a gas station.
Before we flew home we visited downtown Knoxville, the University of Tennessee and the East Tennessee Historical Museum. It was fun walking around the UT campus and seeing all the college students heading to classes, brought back lots of memories of our college days.
Jen & Brendan {April 2024}