Great Smoky Mountains Travel Guide: 2 Days Exploring the National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States Amy and I had never spent any time there so on a recent trip to Tennessee we decided to spend two days exploring the park here's what we did we were staying in the town of Knoxville so our trip began with the one hour drive towards Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge I had never been to this area before and I didn't know what was gonna greet me in Pigeon Forge but it was definitely not what I expected where are we driving through the town of Pigeon Forge is an experience in and of itself from passing the large replica Titanic and the National Inquirer building to visiting the stores with live bears sharks and alligators it's a really strange experience to have on the way into the National Park eventually we escaped Pigeon Forge and were greeted by green trees and small rivers as we made our way to our first stop in the Great Smokies Rainbow Falls we have the last parking spot in the Rainbow Falls Trail area going to have some food and then heading out on a five-mile hike Amy looks really excited [Music] a day out on the trail to Rainbow Falls [Applause] Rainbow Falls is one of the most popular trails in the park and it's a nice introduction to the Great Smoky Mountains with a beautiful shaded trail and a stream you fall down most of the way we're about a half mile into the hike two things to note one it's uphill most the entire way and two it's really humid we're from Southern California we're not used to be in the sweaty after getting used to the humidity Amy and I relaxed and really did enjoy the two point six miles to Rainbow Falls we even saw a snake along the way that's a big snake we stumbled right across the snake as we were hiking and I asked a park ranger later and he told me as a black king snake that's not dangerous from here the trail left the stream and started gaining elevation as it made its way up in the mountains is it gonna rain on us not complaining about the humidity as much anymore luckily for us the rain never came even though it probably would have felt nice with humidity made it back to the stream again we're still waiting for rainbow falls somewhere around here after 2.6 miles you'll eventually cross a bend and you'll see Rainbow Falls in the distance first view of the waterfall right there we made it to Rainbow Falls Rainbow Falls is a nice destination in the Great Smoky Mountains is the largest single fall waterfall in the park standing at over 80 feet when you make it to the Falls there's lots of nice rocks you can sit and relax at plus you can explore all around the area even behind the waterfall but if you choose to do that be very careful as the rocks are really slippery that's a good end to this height now let's head back alright so we just made it back that was a beautiful hike got to walk along the creek most of the way lots of beautiful trees and then of course the 80-foot waterfall at the end good introduction in the national park we're exhausted though so we're going to an early dinner and then we're going back to the hotel we headed back down into the town of Gatlinburg and while it's not as crazy as Pigeon Forge it's still pretty quirky [Music] super busy and I shrink for Amy this is our hotel in Gatlinburg it's nice I think it was like 80 dollars a night eighty-five dollars a night check this out it was hard to beat the views from our hotel and we spent each night that we were there having a drink out on the patio utter coffee were headed into the park got the jams on ready to go we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do today but after talking to the park ranger we decided to make the one hour drive to Cades Cove which is one of the most popular areas of the park even the drive there is beautiful as you follow a river most of the way and there's small seasonal waterfalls as well [Music] eventually we made it to Cades Cove paid $1 for the tour booklet and started the 11 mile loop drive there are 17 places you can stop at in Cades Cove according to the map so Amy and I decided to stop it as many as we could we just got to Cades Cove and our first stop is John Oliver's cabin most of the stops around the area take you to either churches or homesteads [Music] on the next spot [Music] note that this is a Monday in May and there's still traffic in this area so definitely plan on there being traffic if you come we didn't know what to expect when we started driving through the Cades Cove area but it is an 11 mile one-way loop road and most of the road is only one lane because of that if there's animals to be seen people often stop in the road and it could take hours to get through the loop one of the park rangers we talked to said it took three hours to get through the loop on a busy summer day so do note that going in that being said it is a beautiful Drive especially if you like history and there are two roads that you can turn off at if you want to cut the drive short while going through the loop stop for Missionary Baptist Church we're not getting out because of all this make sure you get here early we experienced the traffic firsthand as there was a bear way off in the distance that I used my zoom lens for and people just parked in the middle of the road and we sat there for about 45 minutes it wasn't bad because we got to see a bear but if you're in a rush note that if someone parks in the road there's no way around them it was lunchtime for us so we stopped at the cable mill historic area which is about halfway through the park and it's a great place to stop with lots to see there's no food here in the park so make sure you bring your own cheers after lunch be sure you go over and see the cable mill which is one of my favorite things I saw in the entire Cades Cove area and which was built in the late 1800s you can go inside when it's open and learn about the mill process as well as buy some cornmeal that was made in the same processing style but off-site from there we headed back onto the loop and stopped it a few more cabins before ending our time in Cades Cove last up Carter shields cabin now we're heading to Laurel Falls if we can find parking deer traffic got some snacks chips and ice cream just saw a bear pretty good day [Music] the things on the way back we decided to pull out at the sinks which is a small 15-foot waterfall as part of a rushing river and which is one of the only waterfalls you can drive up to in the park it has a nice overlook and it's a great quick stop for pictures score we fell in parking got lucky made it to Laurel Falls we're able to grab a parking spot bout to head out to the waterfall wanted to give you a few quick notes on Cades Cove first bring your patience it's a one lane road people stop in the middle of the road to see different sights so make sure you're patient and you'll have a good time there also bring any snacks that you have is theirs not allowed to eat we plan on it being only one to two hours but I ended up being three to four hours still a great place to explore in the park though let's head out to the water Laurel Falls is probably the most recommended spot in the park as it's a 2.6 mile round trip hike that takes you to a beautiful waterfall because of that it can often be packed as there's not a large parking area [Music] it didn't he gave me an ad long to make it to the falls and even though it was packed it's still a beautiful two-tier waterfall that we spent some time exploring I would definitely recommend hiking down to the bottom tier not as many people go there and it's just as beautiful we're heading back to Gatlinburg for dinner and then we're gonna head back up into the mountains for sunset the town of Gatlinburg is only about a 15 minute ride from Laurel Falls we are back in Gatling Vegas for dinner oh yeah this was our first time really experiencing downtown Gatlinburg and it's crazy how different it is than the national park experience last night we found ourselves at a fancy establishment so tonight we're keeping it low-key bye guys Realty [Music] we're ended up fans but let us know in the comments five guys are in and out what's your favorite in the town of Gatlinburg there's a few really popular attractions ripley's believe it or not the Gatlinburg Space Needle and the sky bridge the sky bridge was the newest attraction we really wanted to see it while we were in the city decided to head up the list of the sky bridge [Music] we are headed up to the sky bridge Amy's really afraid of walking on it but I'm not afraid that's the longest pedestrian bridge in the United States and it's supposed to have a glass-bottom we're gonna check it out the bridge officially opened in May of 2019 and it's over 700 feet long and a hundred and fifty feet off the ground below here's the glass [Music] awesome after facing her fears on the skybridge it was time to head down and go to our last stop only one more stop for our time in Great Smoky Mountains and it is Clingmans Dome which is right out there to drive from Gatlinburg to clean man's dome is about 45 minutes and it takes you up over to the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountains we're at the Newfound Gap which is the tallest part of the road that goes right through the park we're also currently on the Appalachian Trail which is pretty cool Maine is only 1,900 miles from here from here it was only about a 15-minute drive to our sunset spot clayman's dome we've reached the last stop on our journey Clingmans Dome which is supposedly the best spot in the park for sunset while the hike up to claim mins dome is actually pretty short and only around a half mile don't underestimate it as there's a ton of uphill and you're at the tallest part of the park so you'll feel the elevation eventually around the corner and reach the iconic concrete observation tower built in 1959 the concrete observation tower sits about 45 feet above the summit and it provides 360-degree views of the entire park it was an amazing way to end our two days as it gave you a great appreciation for how gigantic this park is well worth the uphill hike the views are awesome that's it for us thanks so much for exploring Great Smoky Mountain National Park with us we'll see you guys on the next video [Music] you

Channel: Through My Lens

Views: 865,235

Rating: 4.8975372 out of 5

Keywords: great smoky mountains, great smokies national park, things to do in great smoky mountains, great smoky mountains national park, 2 days in great smoky mountains

Id: OZKH0abyRSE

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 13 2019