We have officially found the most dreamy park for a camping holiday! Thick forests, pretty streams dotted with paddling kids, families unwinding around campfires, friendly bears, tranquil trails: you can find it all at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, straddling the border between Tennessee and North Carolina.
Thankfully, we arrived at the start of May which isn’t peak season for the park yet, so we nabbed a spectacularly perfect campsite right next to the river in Elkmont campground, at the heart of the park. Day and night, we had the soothing sounds of water gently running over rocks and pebbles to keep us company.
Our first hike in the park took us along an innocuous-looking valley, complete with wild turkeys and puddling butterflies.
Of course, a mile or so in, a group of slightly shellshocked hikers warned us about a mother bear and her cub that they’d just encountered on the trail. We completed that hike a bit more speedily and a lot more alertly!
Cades Cove is, as the visitor centre lady told us, “a pilgrimage for all who visit the Smokies”. This expansive meadow, nestled in amongst the mountains, has been touristified with a scenic loop road that encircles it. I would personally describe it as a beautiful traffic jam.
A trail off the loop road takes you to Abrams Falls – a 2 hour uphill slog takes you up to the falls themselves, but definitely worth doing. Dogwood trees blooming with their white, saucer-shaped flowers decorated the route.
After the hike, we hit a major bear jam on our way out of Cades Cove. These happen when all the cars stop to gawp at a bear they’ve just spotted next to the road, despite all the National Parks pleading with their visitors not to do so! You also get elk jams, bison jams, and so on…
The highest peak in the Smokies is Clingmans Dome. You can actually drive up to the top, but with only one day left and a grim weather forecast, we squeezed in a trip to the next best viewpoint while the sun was out: the little known Look Rock on the scenic Foothills Parkway.
We capped off our stay in the Smokies with a short, steep hike up the popular Laurel Falls trail. It was a fun walk, but our feet, sore from all of our recent treks, agreed that it was time to leave and move on to the next park!
The Big Adventure 
looks like a wonderfull place to go for a hike.
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It was! I definitely recommend a trip there. Make sure you check the trail maps carefully though as we got stopped in our tracks by a river that we’d have needed to ford to continue hiking, it was waaay too deep.
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Ok that sounds like a good idea to check for deep rivers before heading out.
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Aleks, I also agree with your view of the Smokys. I was surprised to learn that the smokys are visited by over 11 million people per year. I bet they also agree.
Becky and I just spent a week there hiking to as many waterfalls as we could. We found the Cade’s Cove Loop on our bikes to be an absolute joy. It is closed to cars on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. The hiking trails are nice and were empty for the most part in early September. It is hard to get a big mountain view like we have in Utah. But, the diversity of hardwoods, the thick under-story and the many streams were outstanding. I wish we would have had time to kayak camp over on the North Carolina side. ….Next trip I guess.
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Hey Tom, sorry I’ve taken so long to reply, the last month has been busy (but then again when isn’t life busy)!
I can’t claim credit for these astute observations about the Smokies, they’re all Alenka’s own, she’s the blogger extraordinaire.
Glad to hear you found Cade’s Cove and the hiking trails quieter than we did, there is something wonderful about hiking through a landscape on your own, it’s part of the reason I enjoyed the National Parks so much.
Where would you have kayaked in North Carolina, I don’t remember there being any big bodies of water in the park? Was this the kayaking trip you were planning when we visited?
Hope you’re both well!
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