A local offers advice on mistakes to avoid to make the most of your next trip to Anakeesta It arrived one day without much fanfare, just seemingly appearing on top of the mountain. Self-billed as Gatlinburg’s “theme park”, there wasn’t a lot to do at Anakeesta that first season. However, a program of steady improvements has seen expansion nearly every
Following the trail to abandoned cabins and forgotten history in the Smokies There is an alternate history of how things might have been different if the National Park had not been created. In the decades before the park, there were a variety of groups that changed the future of the park. Logging companies – to the chagrin of naturalists campaigning
Want to explore Gatlinburg the way the locals do? Here are three suggestions When I was young, my wife Leslie and I were lucky enough to go to France and England a couple of times. We’d go in late March and early April and hope to catch an unseasonably warm week. We were lucky more than we weren’t. But warm
A local shares his biggest mistakes when visiting the National Park It’s easy to take it for granted when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is in your backyard. I wake up every morning with immense natural beauty as the backdrop. I run up to the mountains on the weekends or summer afternoons and it becomes old hat. It’s easy
Here’s how to enjoy Cades Cove without the annoying crowds, according to a local Cades Cove is among the most popular tourist spots in the country, if not the world. With its wide sweeping vistas of the mountains across the valley, wildlife viewing, historic settlements and trails, the Cove offers all that is great about the mountains in one, condensed
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
A local reflects on mistakes and bad experiences he’s had in autumn time in the Smoky Mountains I’ve spent much of my life running around East Tennessee and Western North Carolina mountains. While the mountains are a destination for many, they’re just a part of my life. Go out the driveway, turn left, turn right and turn right again and
Here are 5 of the biggest mistakes you can make when trying to leaf peep in the Smoky Mountains Each fall, the Smoky Mountains explode in a kaleidoscope of color. When you live here, it’s a gradual process. It sneaks up on you. For months the mountains are a verdant green, and then you start to see spots of rusty
Below are this year’s estimates on when we expect East Tennessee to reach peak fall foilage by county There is a grove of trees somewhat near the entrance to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains, and it is my favorite spot to view the fall foliage. I’m not sure what the type of trees are, but the grove is
This stunning waterfall near the Smoky Mountains is only a short hike away, but here’s what you should know “The Jungle Book” was written as a collection of stories and poems about a boy named Mowgli, who grew up in the jungle and was cared for by several animals. There have been several film adaptations over the years. One of