Ready to take the path less traveled? Here are three suggestions from a local
In many ways, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park isn’t for the locals. Think back to the park’s founding. The people of the mountains were moved out so that the land could be preserved. It was a national movement led, in large part, by people who did not live in or near the mountains. Heck, Rockefeller paid $5 million for half the park’s land acquisition. To be clear, I’m glad they did what they did to preserve the park and others like it. I think it’s important that we maintain and conserve and protect the nation’s great lands. But it wasn’t just for us.
Even though I grew up in the shadow of the mountain, once I go into the National Park, I feel like a visitor, too. I’ve been a local for the better part of more than 30 years. However, I don’t feel possession of the mountains or the park. So what do I consider to be some non-tourist things that we do in the park? I struggle a bit because in large part, we locals like the same stuff you tourists do. After all, somebody’s got to keep the pancake houses and go-kart tracks running in the off-season.
But in the mountains? What do the locals do? We like Cades Cove. But more than a million people visit the Cove each year and many of them come from significantly farther than Townsend. With this in mind, what are some things that locals do in the mountains that you might not have tried? Here are my top three.
1. Visit the picnic areas
I’m not breaking revolutionary ground here, of course. But when the locals I know talk about going to the mountains, it’s often a picnic at one of three spots. Are there tourists in these spots? Certainly, but if you roll through one of the park’s most popular picnic areas one early morning in the summer, I bet you’ll find someone from Maryville or Morristown, Newport or Dandridge who got up at dawn to secure one of the primo spots for the family for the day.
Why are mountain picnics popular? They don’t come with a have-to list. No trail HAS to be conquered. No sight that has to be seen. There’s no agenda for the day. You’re going to relax by a mountain stream, cookout and enjoy nature the way FDR and the Rockefellers wanted us to, leisurely. My favorites – the Chimneys Picnic Area, Metcalf Bottoms and Cades Cove Picnic area – change depending on the day and my mood. Currently, it’s Metcalf Bottoms, accessed through Wears Valley. It has plenty of good sites, space and access to the water. But I love all three. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve gone picnicking at the Cove without ever bothering to get onto Loop Road. I suppose that’s the locals’ way. Picnic at the Cove and then assess the traffic. If it’s too bad, come back another day.
2. Find somewhere off the beaten path
One of my favorite places to recommend to people who want something that most tourists don’t know about is Max Patch. A bald – a mountaintop meadow – located near the North Carolina, Tennessee Border. The ride there is a little wild – so I make sure to arrive from the North Carolina side. But it’s beautiful and unique and has a little mystical flair if you’re into such things. However, since it is in the Cherokee National Forest and not the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, I cannot recommend it for this list.
So, instead let me recommend Elkmont, the ghost town near the campground located not too far from the Townsend Wye. The remaining buildings of Elkmont are a reminder of the days before the park when well-to-do-folks from Knoxville or beyond created get-a-ways up in the mountains. Elkmont was a booming logging camp and resort town.
When the park was established in 1932, the owners were given land rights to maintain their cabins. Some of those leases lasted as long as 60 years. But by 1992, the park found itself in ownership of about 70 buildings with no one to look after them. Many of the buildings fell into ruin. In 2009, the park agreed to restore 19 of the buildings including the Appalachian Clubhouse. Other buildings came down, but their rock chimneys remain.
In addition, when exploring Elkmont, you can check out the famous Elkmont Troll Bridge. The bridge is an original part of the Elkmont village which has been restored and cared for by park officials, a small bridge over a stream that reminds folk of the kind of bridges where trolls reside in fairy tale stories. While you’re unlikely to see a real troll, it is a scenic spot for pictures and a beautiful place not very far down the Little River Trail. Elkmont and its adjacent campground are popular with tourists, but you’ll also find many locals who pull their camper up there for a long weekend to spend time in the mountains. Some other historic hiking destinations in the mountains include the House of Fairies, Gregory’s Cave and the Walker Sisters homestead.
3. Go on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
With its trailhead just outside of downtown Gatlinburg, the Roaring Fork isn’t a secret by any stretch of the imagination. Several very popular trailheads start along the Motor Nature Trail. But, compared to the traffic at Cades Cove, the Motor Nature Trail is underappreciated. But remember, it is closed in the winter months. When open, the Roaring Fork is a 5.5-mile, one-way loop through the mountains. Unlike Cades Cove, the Roaring Fork takes you high up into the mountains for views of the valley below. In addition to connecting to several trailheads – the Grotto Falls trail being among the most popular – the Roaring Fork takes you past several historic homesteads, along mountain streams and right past the spectacularly named Place of 1,000 Drips.
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