Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Five Places You Must Visit
Standing like a gentle giant on the border between western North Carolina and east Tennessee are the Great Smoky Mountains. The Great Smoky’s has become the most visited National Park in the United States. The Smoky’s welcome approximately 9.5 million visitors annually. There is no lack of things to do. There is something for everyone in the family to enjoy during their vacation to the Smoky’s. A few must see stops during your trip to the Great Smoky Mountains should include Cades Cove, Clingman’s Dome, Oconaluftee, Greenbriar, and Gatlinburg.
Cades Cove is an eleven-mile one way winding paved road. You can pick up the auto tour booklet at the entrance to the cove to become acquainted with the sites you will be visiting. When you enter Cades Cove you are stepping back in time. You are returning to the days when Cades Cove was an actual community prior to being bought and turned into a National Park. Cades Cove is one of the best places to go to see restored historic structures in the Appalachian Mountains. You will visit the places where the first white settlers built their homes and lived. You can picnic in the meadows, hike the trails, fish, swim in the creeks, or simply sit and look at the waterfalls. There are numerous gravel roads running off of the main loop road that will take you back in time through forests of rhododendron to churches, cemeteries, and out of the way homesites. Wildlife is plentiful, so bring your camera. The facilities at the beginning of the cove consist of a campground, amphitheater, restrooms, store, bike and horse rentals, picnic area, ranger station, horse camp, and visitor center. You will obtain all your permits here for camping or hiking in the back country. The Cades Cove loop is open to bicyclists, as well as walkers.
Dome, in the Appalachians, means high peak. The highest mountain peak in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is Clingman’s Dome at 6643 feet above sea level. Here you will have a 360 degree view of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You will feel like you are ascending into Heaven as you travel up to the dome. You will drive through cool, forests of red spruce and Fraser fir. Breathtaking views await you around every turn as you drive up old Smoky. There are restrooms at the top, as well as a paved trail to the observation tower. There are also hiking trails into the backwoods that will take you to balds, which are mountain tops that have no trees but plentiful flowers.
Oconalluftee is a historic mountain farm museum. There you will see living history demonstrations, special events, a real working mill, and you will have access to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Oconalluftee has original log buildings. The farm community still has ducks, geese, cows, pigs, horses and a rooster. There is a visitor center here, as well as restrooms. You can obtain permits for the back country at the ranger station. Three miles beyond is a campground with trail heads for hiking.
Greenbriar was once the most populated area in the mountains prior to it becoming a National Park. Here you can visit early homesites, fish, swim, or hike a trail. There are sheltered and open picnic areas, and a ranger station. Greenbriar is where the center of the community was once located. Early mountain people came to Greenbriar to drop their mail at the post office, shop at the country store, go to church, and school. A breathtaking view at Greenbriar is The Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River that the kids will love to swim in. If you are into waterfalls take the trail head here to Ramsey Cascades. Ramsey Cascades is the highest waterfall in the park.
You will not lack for things to do in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. If shopping and restaurants are more your style, visit Gatlinburg. It is packed with shops, speciality stores, as well as the more well-known chains. It also offers winter skiing, Ripleys Aquarium, arcades, music and much more. Here you will find your hotels, motels and cabin rental office’s.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has become a must on every one’s list of places to visit. If you need further information about what the park can offer you and your family check out these listed resources.
Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce
P O Box 527
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
1-800-267-7088
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
107 Park Headquaraters Road
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
1-865-436-1200
www.nps.gov/grsm
Great Smoky Mountains Association
115 Park Headquarters Road
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
1-865-436-0120
www.SmokiesStore.org
Townsend Information Center
7906 E Lamar Alexander Pkwy
Townsend, TN 37882
1-800-525-6834
