TENNESSEE: Gatlinburg

In the Smoky Mountains there are two entrances into the park: one in the East on the North Carolina side (which is where we were staying during our visit), and one on the West in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. For our time in the area we wanted to be in a more secluded area without crowds and typical tourist attractions. However, if tourist attractions and casual franchise dining are more your "thing" then Gatlinburg is the place for you to stay.

If you have ever been to Orlando and ventured down the heart of International Drive, then you kind of already have a feel for what Gatlinburg is. Full of bars, Chilis, Fridays and Ripley's Believe it or Not museums, it is like tourism gone wild. There are hotels and shops lining the blocks and all sorts of festivities going on.

Enjoying our peaceful cabin in Cherokee

After hiking in the Smokey's and spending time secluded for awhile, we ventured into this tourism paradise for an afternoon. Driving through the Smoky Mountains is beautiful. Winding turns and lush vegetation surround you as you traverse the hills and mountains through the park. The drive through is about an hour and you can't miss Gatlinburg. We looked up a few places to eat and decided on the Smoky Mountain Brewery.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN BREWERY

Located in the basic tourism center of town the Smoky Mountain Brewery is your typical bar food and local beer restaurant. The food was nothing special and their locally brewed beers were alright.

As we didn't spend too much time in Gatlinburg, we don't have a whole lot more to say about it. To be honest, what it had to offer just wasn't our cup of tea.

You can read our other entries about Tennessee here.

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park III

small butterfly near Laurel Falls

This post contains photos which were from our adventures hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You can read Part I here and you can read Part II here. 

Tom Branch Falls in Deep Creek

Indian Creek Falls

Juney Whank Falls

From the Alum Cave hike

Alum Cave hike

View from Inspiration Point, along the Alum Cave hike

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. You can read our entries about hiking in the park here.

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TENNESSEE: Great Smoky Mountains National Park II

Alum Cave - other hikers for scale

Continuing our tour of the Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee is home to many of the more popular attractions and hikes. As we mentioned previously (click here to read Part I),  HikingInTheSmokys was a great resource for us when it came to planning our hikes.


ALUM CAVE TRAIL
This trail in particular is one of the more popular treks in the Smoky Mountains. It is a great versatile trail that isn't particularly hard and doesn't take more than a few hours to complete even though it is about 6 miles round-trip. We started this hike early cause we knew the parking would be tough, and we suggest you do the same. This hike wasn't open all week due to the volume of crowds and some maintenance along the trail.
We both really enjoyed this hike. While many hikes will lead you to one final viewpoint destination, this trail was full of sights and challenges that were very engaging. Great views and interesting bridges, running water and the final view from the actual Alum Cave, which isn't really a cave more like an overlook that was dug during the civil war for salt deposits. Definitely a hike you don't wanna miss.

along the Alum Cave Trail

View from Inspiration point along the Alum Cave trail

CHIMNEY TOPS TRAIL
Chimney Tops is another very popular hike in the area. Unfortunately, because we did some major hiking before this we only did about half this trail and turned back. From what we saw, there were lots of streams, bridges and soaring trees. The view from the top of this trail is supposedly amazing. While we can't speak from personal experience about the full hike, what we did see was gorgeous. There is a gradual incline which was a bit too rough on our legs for that day, but we'd like to complete this hike if ever we make it back to the Smoky's.

LAUREL FALLS
Laurel Falls is a bit out of the way compared to the other hikes, and very saturated with tourists. The hike to Laurel Falls is an easy mile or so of incline, and to be fair - we feel that the Deep Creek area has a lot more to offer in terms of scenery and solitude. While Laurel Falls is beautiful, there were so many people around it was very difficult to get a good shot of the scenery without including several tourists.

MORTON'S OVERLOOK
Morton's Overlook is more of a viewpoint while you are driving the main road through the Smokey mountains from NC to TN. We stopped here twice. It is a vast open valley with views as far as the eye can see. We also attempted to see a sunset here but the cloud coverage in the area at that time in the evening was overtaking the sun. It's a beautiful little turn off, and worth stopping for the view.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. You can read our entries about hiking in the park here.

You can read our other entries about Tennessee here. 

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