The Great Smoky Mountains
Living in Florida, the sunshine state makes me miss my winters as here the season last only for weeks, so to refresh some wintry spirit we thought to take a short road trip to a near mountain region 'The Great Smoky Mountains' which rise along Tennessee–North Carolina borders and intact ourself with some cold vibes.
We started our journey from Tampa on Friday afternoon and drove a little over 3 hours to take a break.
Tip- If you are traveling with small children I will advise to search and be prepared in advance for your stops and if you have time search for some outlet near highways or shops like IKEA, Walmart because here kids can easily stretch their legs and you can grab some snack and can freshen up too, so its a win-win.
After driving for 6 hours, we checked in at Marietta, GA. Next morning we had our go-to breakfast and drove straight for 4 hours to reach our first destination, Cade Cove loop at Tennessee (there were miles of fog but luckily it wasn't so dense).
Cade cove is an 11-mile loop road with few historical stops in between but the scenic views are mesmerizing. In January you won’t see any greenery here, but the view of mountains, open grass fields is so fascinating to watch and if you are lucky you might see some deer too. There are few old cabins, church from 18th century, a twenty feet fall and trails in the loop.
[list of stops: Oliver Cabin, Baptist Church, Methodist Church, Missionary Baptist Church, Cooper Road Trail, Elijah Oliver Place, Abrams Falls,Visitor Center, Cable Mill, Henry Whitehead Place, Cades Cove Nature Trail, Dan Lawson Place, Tipton Place, Carter Shields Cabin, Hyatt Lane and Sparks Lane]
Before entering the loop we took a flyer from visitor center (you can prepare beforehand with few selected spots to view). We didn't go for waterfalls or any trail still we spent 2 hours in the loop. Anyone who is visiting smoky or Gatlinburg should visit this, the natural beauty of mountains is a tonic for the eyes.
Cades Cove is in Townsend and our next stop was Gatlinburg which is almost 25 miles from the loop.
Tip- So, if you are at smoky and had already covered Gatlinburg and cade cove is your last stop, I would suggest making your next stop either at Townsend itself or Cherokee (50 miles) so that you can avoid the curvy mountain roads.
The Christmas lights of Gatlinburg shines all January, so when we ended up at our hotel at almost 6 pm, we decided to take a short walk in the town and lighten ourself. It's a beautiful small town full of tourist, candies and lots of bear statues. Bears are a mascot for smoky mountains. Well, one can shop several local things here, like souvenir or art. We strolled around a bit had some food and went straight to bed.
It rained almost all night and the morning was all wintry and foggy a typical mountain morning. Our plan for the day was to have some fun at smoky in there famous Ober Gatlinburg mountain (The mountain has a covered amusement park and outdoor ski area). They make man-made snow for skiing and for snow tubing rides. In January Gatlinburg also organize Winter games so if you are sport and snow enthusiastic, schedule the visit accordingly.
The park has varieties of rides and fun activities for all ages. The best way to reach there is to take a 15 min Aerial Tramway ride, you can drive there too but the views from the tramway are amazing. They have many fun activities at the top both for kids and adults, but it will be way better to make up your mind before-hand as it will save both time and boring long queue, if possible buy tickets in advance to makes things easy, everything is available in their website tickets prices, timing, peak season etc.
Tip- Try to be early on the mountains as you can get parking space ($5) plus you have a whole day of activities to do at mountains.
We were there mainly for snow tubing and arrived at first slot. They have the time slot of one and half hours for every 100 people (can change), kids under 6 can do tubing with their parents in a double tube. It was a fun-filled hour for us, though we don't know skiing or skating so after finishing tubing our son had fun at kids zone and on some rides.
For lunch we were back at the Flapjacks, the whole Gatlinburg town is full of delicious southern meals. On our return we ditched 1-75 route and went through “Great Smoky National Park”, the glorious mountains were peeking from the clouds in mid-afternoon, tourist stops their cars at several places to capture its beauty.
The last year fire has really changed the face of smoky and according to reports, the fires had burned more than 10,000 acres of land within the forest, many half-burnt trees are still around the jungle. The disaster was major for local people and the forest itself and I am sure it will stand tall again. This was my second trip after fall, hopefully, I will be back soon in another season to see the mountains little more and make some more beautiful memories here.
We started our journey from Tampa on Friday afternoon and drove a little over 3 hours to take a break.
Tip- If you are traveling with small children I will advise to search and be prepared in advance for your stops and if you have time search for some outlet near highways or shops like IKEA, Walmart because here kids can easily stretch their legs and you can grab some snack and can freshen up too, so its a win-win.
After driving for 6 hours, we checked in at Marietta, GA. Next morning we had our go-to breakfast and drove straight for 4 hours to reach our first destination, Cade Cove loop at Tennessee (there were miles of fog but luckily it wasn't so dense).
Cade cove is an 11-mile loop road with few historical stops in between but the scenic views are mesmerizing. In January you won’t see any greenery here, but the view of mountains, open grass fields is so fascinating to watch and if you are lucky you might see some deer too. There are few old cabins, church from 18th century, a twenty feet fall and trails in the loop.
[list of stops: Oliver Cabin, Baptist Church, Methodist Church, Missionary Baptist Church, Cooper Road Trail, Elijah Oliver Place, Abrams Falls,Visitor Center, Cable Mill, Henry Whitehead Place, Cades Cove Nature Trail, Dan Lawson Place, Tipton Place, Carter Shields Cabin, Hyatt Lane and Sparks Lane]
Before entering the loop we took a flyer from visitor center (you can prepare beforehand with few selected spots to view). We didn't go for waterfalls or any trail still we spent 2 hours in the loop. Anyone who is visiting smoky or Gatlinburg should visit this, the natural beauty of mountains is a tonic for the eyes.
Cades Cove is in Townsend and our next stop was Gatlinburg which is almost 25 miles from the loop.
Tip- So, if you are at smoky and had already covered Gatlinburg and cade cove is your last stop, I would suggest making your next stop either at Townsend itself or Cherokee (50 miles) so that you can avoid the curvy mountain roads.
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Great smoky mountains in winters
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It rained almost all night and the morning was all wintry and foggy a typical mountain morning. Our plan for the day was to have some fun at smoky in there famous Ober Gatlinburg mountain (The mountain has a covered amusement park and outdoor ski area). They make man-made snow for skiing and for snow tubing rides. In January Gatlinburg also organize Winter games so if you are sport and snow enthusiastic, schedule the visit accordingly.
The park has varieties of rides and fun activities for all ages. The best way to reach there is to take a 15 min Aerial Tramway ride, you can drive there too but the views from the tramway are amazing. They have many fun activities at the top both for kids and adults, but it will be way better to make up your mind before-hand as it will save both time and boring long queue, if possible buy tickets in advance to makes things easy, everything is available in their website tickets prices, timing, peak season etc.
Tip- Try to be early on the mountains as you can get parking space ($5) plus you have a whole day of activities to do at mountains.
We were there mainly for snow tubing and arrived at first slot. They have the time slot of one and half hours for every 100 people (can change), kids under 6 can do tubing with their parents in a double tube. It was a fun-filled hour for us, though we don't know skiing or skating so after finishing tubing our son had fun at kids zone and on some rides.
 |
| Snow Tubing |
For lunch we were back at the Flapjacks, the whole Gatlinburg town is full of delicious southern meals. On our return we ditched 1-75 route and went through “Great Smoky National Park”, the glorious mountains were peeking from the clouds in mid-afternoon, tourist stops their cars at several places to capture its beauty.
The last year fire has really changed the face of smoky and according to reports, the fires had burned more than 10,000 acres of land within the forest, many half-burnt trees are still around the jungle. The disaster was major for local people and the forest itself and I am sure it will stand tall again. This was my second trip after fall, hopefully, I will be back soon in another season to see the mountains little more and make some more beautiful memories here.
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