6 Secrets You Didn't Know About Gatlinburg Tennessee & The Smoky Mountains

Rachel: Hey guys we are out here in The Great Smoky  Mountains National Park. If you've ever been   out here you know that it can get pretty  crowded considering it is the most visited   national park in America. So we have compiled  a nice little scavenger hunt list for you guys   of six hidden gems in The Smokies that are  right under your nose and you'd never even know it.   We hope the next time you're out here this list will help you to explore some new locations and escape the crowds. We are about to go see the secret tunnel under Clingman's Dome.   I'm going to give you a little walk through of how  to get to it because it is a little tricky to find.  when you come up clingmans dome road you're  going to see the access gates and they'll say   road closed because they're closed during December  through I guess the beginning of the year March. But you're going to come up the road  and there's a pull-off right after those gates and you'll just pull off here and park. And then we're going to walk about 0.2 miles up the road and there's a stone bridge you can see it from this pull-off.  There's a stone bridge and we're just going to go  down that hill and the tunnel is right down there. So this is the Thomas Divide Tunnel. It was  constructed in the '30s when the CCC was up here   building Clingmans Dome Road. There was a  trail that connected to the Appalachian Trail   and instead of having the hikers go over the road  they constructed this tunnel so that they could go   under it. The trail is actually no longer in use  so now we have this pretty neat abandoned tunnel.   Next time you're in the Smokies and you're  doing a hike up here near Clingman's Dome   come check this tunnel out. It's a great photo  opportunity. So this is one of the two covered bridges that are near Gatlinburg. This one is not far from Gatlinburg at all just 15 minutes.   If you're ever in the area it's an awesome place  to check out it's beautiful you can take a nice   picture, go fishing. There's people fishing under  the bridge and it's just beautiful just being   here by the river. It's covered. It's over the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River.   So it's a nice place to come and check out if  you're ever in the area. All right so we are at the second of the two covered bridges near Gatlinburg. This one is Harrisburg Covered Bridge and it was   constructed in 1875 after McNutt's Bridge was washed out by a flood. They took $50   in donations from citizens of Sevier County and  paired that with their $25 county contribution   and built this here bridge for 75 bucks. So I  think that's a pretty good deal. It's a beautiful   bridge. If you're ever in the area check out these two covered bridges. They are beautiful. We are here today at the Elkmont Ghost Town.  In 1901 the Little River Lumber Company   bought around 86,000 acres along the Little River  to log and to make it easier to get the timber   down to the sawmill they built a railway. That railway eventually attracted wealthy families   from Knoxville who were seeking the back-to-nature experience and they came up here   and built a community, a resort community, and  they took the name of Elkmont and these cabins   and houses down this this strip are what's left  of that community so we're gonna go check them out. So in 1934 when the Great Smoky  Mountains National Park was established   residents in the area were given two options the  first was to sell their home for full price and   relocate immediately or to sell it at a discounted  rate to the Parks Service and to be able to live in   their home for the rest of their lifetime. The ones  who chose the second option most of those leases   expired in 1992 and so the Parks Service was left  with about 70 homes that they had to take care of.   They couldn't take care of them all  and so they began to deteriorate   and the homes in this area became  known as the Elkmont Ghost Town.   So this little house behind me is actually  one of the oldest houses in the region.   It was originally built in 1830 along Jake's  Creek and in 1932 the people who owned this   home the Mayo Home moved it up here behind their  house and remodeled it to serve as a guest house. We are at the Little River Trail and from the  the parking lot of this trail if you look up the   hill you can see Elkmont Ghost Town but right  down this trail probably about 100,150 feet   there's another really interesting thing you should check out. So we're gonna go see. So there's not much info on the Elkmont Troll  Bridge but we do know that it was built around   the same time that the vacation resort folks  were establishing the little town of Elkmont.   And this is one of the cutest, like most  cool little bridges I've ever seen.  It's not a far hike in. It's really  short but you also get to see   those remnants of old houses that were around here. So it's super worth the checkout. If you're   ever in the area check it out. It's not busy  at all and it's a short little hike up here. All right guys so we've made it to another lesser  known location this is called the Voorheis Estate.   From 1928 to 1944 a gentleman named Louis  E Voorheis established about 38 acres made it   into a mountain retreat. It consisted of the  main house, two guest house, an apple barn and   a horse barn and there's a bunch of ruins uh left  that you can see. It's really neat. Some shrubbery   really out of place shrubbery and flowers and  stuff that they planted on the estate. In 1933   he deeded it to the National Parks Service and in  1952 they took over the maintenance of the area   and so you get to see what's left and it's really interesting. It's there's not a lot of of people   it's a lesser-known location. It's really awesome to see. We enjoyed exploring the area. If you're   ever in the Great Smoky Mountains near here, you should definitely check it out. It's really worth the trip. All right guys so we've made it to  another location that's not very well known.   This is the House of the Fairies. It was  the spring house for the Voorheis Estate.   It's probably less lesser known because it's  kind of difficult to find but you're going to   take the Twin Creeks Trail up to the Natural  Resource Center and follow the fence past the barn   past the back of the fence and just a little ways up the hill. We're actually going to leave a link   in the description below of our Twin Creeks  Trail video and that'll it's a full-length   video of how to get up here and see this and see the Voorheis Estate. But this place is like   super neat. It's really beautiful and I bet it's  just absolutely beautiful to see in the springtime   when there's just so much greenery and the  moss is covering all this but it's like   awesome to see whenever. We really enjoyed it. It's  a great place to come just to have a peaceful   moment away from the crowds, take a nice picture  and it's just super neat to see the history of   the Great Smoky Mountains Park before it was the  Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We really   enjoyed it and we know you will. So check it out  the next time you're in the Great Smoky Mountains.   All right guys we hope you enjoyed that video  and found a few locations on the list that you   haven't seen before and will be able to explore  the next time you're in the Great Smoky Mountains.   We had so much fun searching out and finding  these places and we know that you will too.   So the next time you come up to the Great  Smoky Mountains and decide to explore one of   the locations on the list you should let us know  how you liked it on our Facebook group. Leave us a   picture and a comment. And we're going to link  the Facebook group in the description below.   Thank you for watching. Please like, comment,  subscribe, and hit that notification bell.

Channel: An Adventure with Nick & Rachel

Views: 266,545

Keywords: Best Kept Secrets in the Smoky Mountains, explore hidden gems, Great Smoky Mountains scavenger hunt, hidden gems in the Smoky Mountains, beat the crowd in the Great Smoky Mountains, The House of the fairies, the Voorheis estate, secret tunnel under Clingmans Dome, Elkmont Troll Bridge, Elkmont Ghost Town, fun things to do in the Great Smoky Mountains, fun things to do in gatlinburg, gatlinburg tennessee, visit Gatlinburg, smoky mountains travel guide, Gatlinburg, smoky mountains

Id: OwBqk9Nujhs

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021