Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Three days in wild Appalachia
I have a routine whenever I explore a national park for the first time. Do some general research to figure out hikes and places I want to go so I don’t get completely lost, but mostly leave things open to spontaneity and “feel” once I arrive. Each of America’s 63 incredible national parks is unique, with vastly differing levels of access and services. For instance, I’ve hired a bush plane to fly me into Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska (one of the only ways to get there) and done some serious backcountry trails surrounded by grizzly bears. Other times, I’ve made a Friday night decision to hop in the car and catch the sunset in Shenandoah National Park 90 minutes away with zero advance planning. It always takes that first trip to each park for the black spot on the map in your mind to become clear. This exploration can be filled with excitement and adventure as it takes you to wild and vast lands many of us don’t get to see every day. But as you return time and again, even the most remote park can start to feel like an old friend.
Such was my recent experience with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (“GSMNP” for short or simply “the Smokies”). I’ve lived in the Mid-Atlantic for over a decade and I am ashamed to say this was my first time visiting the Smokies. But it absolutely blew me away and I will be back many times as it already feels so familiar after that first trip.
GSMNP is the most biodiverse park in the ENTIRE national park system! This part of Appalachia contains one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world, has big areas of last-remaining old-growth trees, and enough trails to keep you occupied for a lifetime. GSMNP is one of only three total national parks in the Mid-Atlantic along with Shenandoah National Park in VA and the newly created New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in WV. But, more than any other park or forest in the region, the Smokies give you a greater sense of what the vast Appalachian ecosystem spanning much of the East Coast looked like before human development — a part of the country where large conservation is difficult and few wild places remain, which makes the Smokies even more incredible.
Without further ado, here’s my guide — infused with my knowledge of our amazing public lands, as always — which will hopefully allow you to similarly reveal the details of the Smokies on the uncharted map in your mind and help you develop a stronger connection to our country’s great lands.
Six Things You’ll Learn From This Post:
- Where to stay.
- When to see the synchronous fireflies — one of the only places in the world to see this unique natural phenomena!
- What to do for any skill level from scenic drives to “quiet walkways” to rigorous mountain climbs.
- Summiting the highest peak in Tennessee — it’s easier than you think!
- Where to picnic in one of the most beautiful mountain valley fields.
- Staying safe in bear country — do’s and don’ts.
BONUS: More information on the Cherokee Indians who made their home on this land for 11,000 years before being forced off by the U.S. Government during the Trail of Tears and how the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reclaimed some of their sovereign land, known today as the Qualla Boundary.
Where to stay / accessing the park.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the country, with over 12 million annual visitors. It’s 522,000 acres are almost evenly split between TN and NC. It has 10 campgrounds with a total of 1,000 sites, 11 picnic areas with 1,050 sites, 384 miles of roads (238 paved and 146 unpaved), 730 miles of fish-bearing streams, elevations ranging from 875 feet to 6,643 ft, and 850 miles of trails with 70 miles of the Appalachian Trail. In addition to being a national park, GSMNP was designated an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and a World Heritage Site in 1983 [Credit: NPS Park Statistics].
I don’t normally quote a bunch of park stats but this snapshot helps paint a picture of what to expect in the Smokies. 522k acres seems big but with 12 million people swarming the park each year there can be huge traffic delays and packed trails around the most popular spots. This is especially true in Cades Cove, Laurel Falls, and along the Newfound Gap Road that bisects the park. If traveling in peak season, consider exploring trails and areas further to the southern and eastern regions of the park. 850 miles of trails is a lot and just because a certain spot is popular doesn’t mean you can’t find the same, or better, views elsewhere. There are also some days when the entire Cades Cove loop road is closed to foot and bicycle traffic only so be sure to check the schedule when planning your visit.
Unlike Shenandoah or some other western parks such as Yellowstone or Glacier, there are no lodges within the Smokies. There are plenty of car camping options with bathrooms and very easy camp sites, as mentioned above (see: here for list of campgrounds that will take you to Recreation.gov to make a campsite reservation). But if seeking the comforts of a bed during your travels, you’ll need to stay in one of the Smokies’ gateway cities: Gatlinburg, Cherokee, or other smaller towns on the outskirts of the park.
On this visit, we stayed two nights in Gatlinburg and one night in Cherokee which gave us a great feel for the different sides of the park. Gatlinburg is an “experience.” There are tons of great hotels, restaurants, bars, and family-friendly activities. There are “mountain coasters” and one of the world’s largest pedestrian suspension bridges! It’s sort of like a mountain Disney Land. But, for us, the main attraction was the park.
Cherokee was a much more relaxed experience and an incredibly beautiful small town along a river. More on Cherokee later in relation to the history of the Cherokee people but I would highly recommend Cherokee over Gatlinburg as your GSMNP launch point. Cherokee also directly connects to the Blue Ridge Parkway and is a straight shot to Asheville and other destination points in NC and VA.
Synchronous Fireflies.
Stated in the intro, the Great Smoky Mountains is the most biodiverse park in the national park system. According to the National Park Service, “over 19,000 species have been documented in the park and scientists believe an additional 80,000–100,000 species may live here. Scientists have discovered nearly 10,000 species that were not previously known from the park, and many of these (~1000) had never been seen anywhere in the world before; they were new to science.”
This is largely because the range of elevations, climate, and weather found in the Smokies supports habitat that allows nearly every plant and animal species found along the entire eastern United States to thrive somewhere within the park. For some of these species, the Smokies are their final refuge — driven to extinction elsewhere by the industrialization and urbanization of the East Coast.
The level of biodiversity found within GSMNP is truly remarkable given how besieged it is by human development on all sides. About two-thirds of the U.S. population (~220 million people) lives within a day’s drive.
One of the most popular ways to experience some of this biodiversity is in the late spring / early summer witnessing the synchronous fireflies — one of 19 species of fireflies found within the park. This has become a very popular annual event for obvious reasons. Imagine standing in the quiet woods at dusk, listening to the creek passing over rocks, surrounded by countless synchronized bioluminescent lights reflecting off the water. Due to its popularity, and the need to maintain the health of the forest, NPS manages a strict number of tickets by lottery system.
- Visit this page in the early spring to sign up for the lottery and for more information:
- There is also more information on what to expect: here.
- And a local outfitter where you can book private tours if you’re unsuccessful gaining lottery tickets: here.
What to do for any skill level from scenic drives to “quiet walkways” to rigorous mountain climbs.
Now that you know where to stay, how to access the park, and what to expect, where to go?!
For my first trip to the Smokies, and since we were a little before peak season crowds, we decided to hit the most popular sights. On day one, we drove from Gatlinburg to the Sugarlands Visitor Center / entrance station and turned west along Fighting Creek Gap Road / Little River Gorge Rd, Laurel Creek Rd to Cades Cove. This is all part of the major western road and very easy to follow with road signage (don’t expect cell service).
Just a few minutes down the road is one of the top day-hiking destinations in the park, Laurel Falls Trail. This is an easy, mostly flat hike into old-growth forest and an 80-foot waterfall. Check out trail details: here. Signage on the trail is very easy to follow and there is a clear parking area by the trailhead on the righthand side of the road heading west. Continue along the trail beyond the falls if you really want to get into the old-growth forest. Or double back to the parking area.
All along the road on the way to Cades Cove, there are more trailhead parking areas and creekside “Quiet Walkways” designated by appropriately named little signs. I love the imagery this invokes and the quiet walkway signs describe the type of experience you’ll find:
“A short walk on this easy trail offers close-up views, subtle aromas, and the serene quiet of protected woodland. You will be walking in one of the last great wildland areas in the East, but you won’t need a backpack or hiking boots. Take your time. Have a seat on a rock or a log bench. The trail has no particular destination, so walk as far as you like and then return.”
I feel more relaxed just reading that! This is a perfect example of how our national parks were designed with every visitor in mind. From the hardcore hiker to those who just want a beautiful drive and a short, peaceful hike surrounded by nature. So make as many stops along the road as you like and enjoy these unique gems.
If you make it all the way to Cades Cove, the road turns into a one-way 11-mile loop. According to NPS, “allow at least two to four hours to tour Cades Cove, longer if you walk some of the area’s trails. Traffic is heavy during the tourist season in summer and fall and on weekends year-round. While driving the loop road, please be courteous to other visitors and use pullouts when stopping to enjoy the scenery or view wildlife.”
There is a lot of understatement in those last few sentences. This is one of the most packed regions of the park due to its Instagramable mountain fields, historic buildings, and wildlife viewing (bear, deer, and other) that can many times be seen without leaving the car. In the off-season it took us four hours to travel this road and we didn’t do any hikes longer than getting out to see a few historic buildings (there are many more hiking options than that).
Most of the traffic pileups are due to people taking pictures of bears that come close to the road. THERE ARE PULLOUT AREAS TO LET CARS PASS YOU! As the NPS website casually recommends — PLEASE BE COURTEOUS TO OTHER VISITORS AND USE PULLOUTS WHEN STOPPING. But, of course, almost no one does this and you’ll be stopped dead for 45 min before you know what’s happening because an SUV fifty cars up filled with iPad photographers are leaning out their window blocking traffic…
I’m not bitter at all…
The fields at Cades Cove are spectacularly beautiful, though, and worth frolicking into with picnic baskets to pass a summer’s day. There are many designated parking areas to do this over the 11-mile loop. Just be prepared that the entire journey (starting and ending in Gatlinburg and just traveling along that one east/west road) will take the whole day.
On day two, we once again drove from Gatlinburg to the Sugarlands Visitor Center / entrance station but this time continued along Newfound Gap Road all the way to Cherokee, NC. The same endless opportunities for quiet walkways and roadside trailheads also exists this direction as it does heading toward Cades Cove so, again, allow for a lot of spontaneous exploration time.
For a more advanced hiking / mountaineering experience, the trailhead to summit Mt. Le Conte is along this road. This is a strenuous 11-mile roundtrip hike with roughly 3,000 feet of elevation gain. But the 6,593 ft summit gives sweeping panoramic views. Trailhead parking is at Alum Cave along Newfound Gap Road. Trail description is: here.
Continuing a bit further, we turned down Clingmans Dome Road (closed in winter) to experience Tennessee’s highest point. At the juncture of Newfound Gap Road and Clingmans Dome Road (at Newfound Gap) the Appalachian Trail crosses over the road and provides great day hiking options north and south. There is also a parking lot here and the stone platform where President Franklin D. Roosevelt formally dedicated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the public on September 2, 1940. The text of the speech President Roosevelt gave, “with one foot in North Carolina and one foot in Tennessee,” is worth reading in full and is: here. Here’s an excerpt:
“Here in the Great Smokies, we have come together to dedicate these mountains, streams, and forests, to the service of the millions of American people…There are trees here that stood before our forefathers ever came to this continent; there are brooks that still run as clear as on the day the first pioneer cupped his hand and drank from them. In this Park, we shall conserve these trees, the pine, the red-bud, the dogwood, the azalea, the rhododendron, the trout and the thrush for the happiness of the American people…We used up or destroyed much of our natural heritage just because that heritage was so bountiful. We slashed our forests, we used our soils, we encouraged floods, we overconcentrated our wealth, we disregarded our unemployed — all of this so greatly that we were brought rather suddenly to face the fact that unless we gave thought to the lives of our children and grandchildren, they would no longer be able to live and to improve upon our American way of life…We are at last definitely engaged in the task of conserving the bounties of nature, thinking in the terms of the whole of nature. We are trying at least to attain employment for all who would work and can work, and to provide a greater assurance of security throughout the life of the family. From hard experience we know that the process is a long one, but most of us realize that if we can continue our effort without serious setbacks, the ideals of the American way of life can and will be attained by working everlastingly for the good of the whole and not for the good of any one privileged group…So, to the free people of America, I dedicate this Park.”
In this quote, much is said about how hard it is to protect our public lands against the special interests and industries that seek to profit over the good of all Americans. Public land is something all of us have the right to enjoy and collectively own together. But once this hard conservation work is done, parks like GSMNP become national treasures and the idea of clear cutting its mountains, mining its resources, or selling off its land to the highest bidding developer becomes unthinkable. This is the power of our national parks.
At the end of Clingmans Dome Road, there’s a parking area with restrooms and a short hike to the summit observation tower along a wide and paved (but sometimes steeply inclined) trail to the — about 1.2 miles total round trip.
On a clear day, 360-degree views can stretch 100 miles into both TN and NC. Clingmans Dome is the highest point in TN at 6,644 ft.
Spruce-fir forests cover the top of the mountain and are reminiscent of forests often found in Maine and Canada. The climate and high level of rainfall in the area actually makes this forest a coniferous rainforest! It’s well worth the side trip.
Staying safe in bear country — do’s and don’ts.
Leaving Clingmans Dome and continuing east along Newfound Gap Road is the North Carolina side of GSMNP. This is where the elk in the park live, reintroduced in 2001 after being eradicated from their traditional habitat in prior generations.
As on the TN side, there are also many bears. Hiking along any trail or driving along any road in the Smokies one has the chance for a bear encounter. If this happens, there are few things to keep in mind:
- You are in their home. Do everything you can not to approach or disturb these wild animals. Do not approach them for photos (I took the above photo from a safe distance with a telephoto lens). Imagine 12 million visitors coming into your home each year. Be respectful.
- Feeding a bear = killing a bear. This is a great rule of thumb. Feeding bears, either intentionally by tying to approach a bear with beef jerky to get a “selfie” (some people…) or unintentionally by not properly disposing of food waste at campsites or along trails, makes bears less fearful of humans and may make them associate humans with food — causing them to approach more closely and become aggressive. When this happens, the NPS has to kill the bear (and sometimes its cubs as well). Don’t be this kind of person.
- Carry bear spray. Leave no trace. To feel comfortable and protected at all times when hiking in bear country, bring the safest and most effective tool there is — bear spray. If you encounter an aggressive bear that challenges you through no fault of your own, bear spray will protect you. Learn how to use it. This, combined with practicing leave no trace, will result in a safe experience for you and a minimal impact on the beautiful wild ecosystems we love and need to keep protected.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
It is 25 windy miles down from the high country of Clingmans Dome to Cherokee, North Carolina. Mislabeled on most maps (even by the NPS) this is not an “Indian Reservation.” The town of Cherokee and surrounding 57,000 acres of Eastern Band lands was privately purchased and is owned by the tribe. This area is known by them as the “Qualla Boundary.”
The history of the Cherokee, the first peoples of the Smokies region, is fascinating. Today, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are a federally recognized sovereign nation located within the borders of the United States and they are recognized separately from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. This is due to the forced genocide and relocation that occurred at the hands of the U.S. Government during the “Trail of Tears” that marched many Cherokee away from their homeland to the Oklahoma reservation.
According to the Visit Cherokee website, “some members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians living in modern day WNC are descendants of Trail of Tears survivors, some of whom made it to Oklahoma and then walked back home. Others are descended from Cherokee who managed to keep land they owned and did not march West. Under the 1819 treaty some Cherokee had taken land and were allowed to remain. Others hid in the mountains and refused to be relocated. In 1850 the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians numbered approximately 1,000. Presently, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is a sovereign nation with over 14,000 members.”
I highly recommend visiting the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in town where you can learn more about the 11,000-year-old-Cherokee story with beautiful interactive displays.
Across the street from the museum, is the Qualla Arts and Crafts center with many items for sale.
There is also a large fairgrounds where public events and festivals are held.
Finally, take a walk along the river through the center of town and explore Oconaluftee Island Park. There is a small event space with public bonfires and tribal speakers who lead groups in traditional storytelling. We caught one called “The Story of the Flute” which incorporated beautiful flute playing and traditional dancing.
There’s also a serene bamboo forest and nice park foot bridges that crisscross the Oconaluftee river.
Cherokee has a small, mountain-town feel that felt perfect after a few days exploring everything the Smokies had to offer. For all these reasons and more, I would recommend this as my top place to stay when visiting GSMNP.
After Cherokee, we turned up the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few more days’ outdoor adventuring before heading home. For more on the Parkway, visit my previous posts:
- Blue Ridge Parkway: America’s Favorite Drive, Day 1 (First Half of the Ridge Region: Milepost 0 — Milepost 27)
- Blue Ridge Parkway: America’s Favorite Drive, Day 2 (Second Half of the Ridge Region & Into the Mid/”Plateau” Region: Milepost 30–115)
- Blue Ridge Parkway: America’s Favorite Drive, Day 3 (NC Highlands to Asheville and Pisgah National Forest: Milepost 300–400)
Will Hackman, Hackman Guided Adventures
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