![]() ![]() Its busy sidewalks are lined with pancake restaurants, souvenir shops, 4-D movie theaters, arcades, museums, rides, and pretty much anything else you can think of that has any chance whatsoever of convincing you - and, more importantly, your children - to part with your money. I’m just going to warn you right now: If you visit Gatlinburg, your kids will never, ever want to leave. Here are some of our absolute favorite attractions, restaurants, and places to stay in the Smokies. We’ve traveled to the area several times and I think we love it a little more each time we visit. Each individual campsite has a fire grate and picnic table. Frontcountry - camping near your car in a developed campground that has restrooms with cold running water and flush toilets. Requires hiking several miles to a site located in the park's backcountry. Between the park and its surrounding tourist-friendly towns, there’s truly something for everyone here - from your headstrong toddler to your 13-year-old roller coaster expert to your let’s-call-her-opinionated mother-in-law. The park offers several different types of campsites: Backcountry - for backpackers. With 800 miles of trails, lush forests, waterfalls, and scenic views, there’s no doubt that this place is awesome. The park’s abundant plant and animal species create memorable opportunities for wildlife-watching, whether seeing elk grazing in the early morning light in Cataloochee, watching turkeys strut across the fields near Oconaluftee, or perhaps spying a bear ambling through the thick groves outside of Cades Cove.There’s a reason Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited park in the nation. Days here are spent hiking past shimmering waterfalls and picnicking beside boulder-filled mountain streams, followed by evenings around the campfire as stars glimmer above the forest canopy. The Smokies are a magical place to unplug from the information overload of modern-day life and reconnect with nature – indeed you’ll be forced to, given the lack of mobile-phone service within the park. There are mesmerizing viewpoints all across the park, as well as one mountaintop lodge that can only be reached by foot. You can contemplate that remote past while huffing your way up to the top of a 6000ft peak overlooking the seemingly endless expanse of undulating ridges that stretch off into the distance. Formed more than 200 million years ago, these ancient peaks were once much higher – perhaps as high as the Himalayas – but have been worn down by the ages. The Smokies are part of the vast Appalachian chain, among the oldest mountains on the planet. You can walk bridges built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression and wander through abandoned resort villages that boomed during the lumber days. You can get glimpses of the lives these homesteaders lived while exploring photogenic open-air museums sprinkled all around the park. The park has preserved many of these vestiges of the past, which make up one of the largest collections of log structures in the nation. In small mountain communities around the Smokies, early settlers built log cabins, one-room schoolhouses, stream-fed gristmills and single-steeple churches amid the fertile forest valleys. This mesmerizing backdrop is also a World Heritage Site, harboring more biodiversity than any other national park in America. In winter, snow-covered fields and ice-fringed cascades transform the Smokies into a serene, cold-weather retreat. ![]() Autumn brings its own fiery rewards with quilted hues of orange, burgundy and saffron blanketing the mountain slopes. Rich blooms of springtime wildflowers come in all colors and sizes, while flame azaleas light up the high-elevation meadows in summer. The sun-dappled forests of the Great Smoky Mountains are a four-season wonderland. Get back to nature among mist-shrouded peaks, shimmering waterfalls and lush forests in the great American wilderness. ![]()
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