Smoky Mountains: The Trip

Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Distance: 264 miles
Drive Time: 5 hours.

Smoky Mountain National Park is one of the closest national parks to us. Only Mammoth Cave is closer, and yet it is one that we hadn't been to yet. Sure we had traveled by it. We took Elisabeth & Matthew to it back in 2008 or '09. But since both kids had to be carried in backpacks, we spent very little time on the trails and most of the time playing in Pigeon Forge. This time was the opposite, we would be spending most of the time hiking / canoeing and only a little time seeing the tourist sights. So while this is technically the second time in the Smoky Mountains, for recording purposes we will call this our first.

Smoky Mountain National Park looks very similar to Shenandoah because it is still part of the Appalachian Mountains, but the difference between the two is stark. Shenandoah Valley is a sleepy small town where nothing exciting happens. Even though it is the closest park to D.C. and the megalopolis that runs from D.C. to New York, it gets a fraction of the visitors of the Great Smoky Mountains. GSM by contrast is surrounded by more tourist activities than you can shake a stick at. It could keep you busy for weeks and still not do everything available to you. Indeed, one thing you have to be ready for when visiting Smoky Mountain National Park is the crowds. It gets more visitors than Grand Canyon & Yellowstone combined. And while 814 square miles is nothing to sneeze at, it doesn't come close to comparing to Yellowstone's 3,468.
Great Smoky Mountain National Park Brochure:
Part 1 - Coming Soon
Part 2 - Coming Soon

The first thing you have to decide when visiting GSM is where to stay. There are essentially three places. Gatlinburg is the gateway to the mountains. It is the center of activity and often when people say they are going to the area, they will say they are going to Gatlinburg. The second is Pigeon Forge. If Memphis is the home of Rock & Roll and Nashville is the home of Country, then Pigeon Forge is the home of Bluegrass. Banjos are everywhere and the music permeates the atmosphere. Where Gatlinburg is about shopping, Pigeon Forge is about family fun. But we instead chose Townsend, a small town much more reminiscent of Shenandoah than the hustle and bustle of one of the top tourist destinations east of the Mississippi. We found a cabin just outside of the entrance to the park.

The reason we went on two National Park trips this year was because my parents were coming to visit, and remembering how much fun we had at the Grand Canyon, they wanted to do something similar to that again. The Sunday we left was homecoming, which meant a fellowship after the morning service with the second service immediately following. We left Church at 4:00pm and went straight to Townsend, with a small stop at a fast food restaurant for dinner. When we arrived it was pitch dark and we almost got stuck when we went down the wrong road. Dad had to get out and guide me as I got the car out of the ditch. With the time change, we got to the cabin at 11:00pm and when straight to bed.