While 2020 has certainly slowed us down, we have still been looking for safe ways to travel. One idea for a relatively safe weekend trip is gathering up your friends and chilling out in a cabin in the woods!
We organized a trip with 8 friends to a cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. While any kind of travel involves risk nowadays, we communicated as a group beforehand to make sure that we and all of our friends were tested negative for the coronavirus before heading out. A few nose swabs is a small price to pay for safety.
1. Rent a Cabin
Before going on the trip do your research. Book a cabin with lots of space to hang out. We rented a cabin in the Pigeon Forge area. While the cabin was about 15 minutes from Pigeon Forge, 30 minutes from Gatlinburg and 1 hour from any Smoky Mountain hike, it felt like the middle of nowhere. The cabin was on the very top of a mountain, with all the steep, winding, and sometimes scary roads that that implies.
The isolation was perfect for the trip we had planned, but next time we would get a cabin closer to Gatlinburg to participate in all the touristy fun. And since the cabin is so isolated you may get lucky and see a bear or raccoon in your backyard.
Our cabin was rented through the Cabins of The Smoky Mountains property management company. Their customer service was amazing and we would rent from them again in a heart beat. Our cabin had amazing sunset views and a hot tub to chill in after a long day of hiking.
2. Plan a waterfall hike
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which we did all of our hiking in, is enormous! Definitely do your research for hiking trails, because there are a lot of them, and some of them are a lot further away than you might think.
The first day, a group of us drove to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and hiked the Grotto Falls Trail.
The trail was about 2.5 miles round trip and was worth every step. Beautiful nature and small waterfalls on the way to get to the main event. We highly recommend this trail for beginners to intermediate.
3. Plan for Fall Traffic
Autumn in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the busiest time of the year. Hundreds of tourists drive through the two-lane road, stopping to take pictures of the majestic mountains draped in orange and yellow leaves. It’s gorgeous, but it’s a traffic nightmare. Be prepared to chill in your car for quite awhile, especially if you hit a “Bear Jam”, which is like a rubbernecking delay, but for the plentiful population of black bears that live in the park.
But hey, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Go ahead and take a bunch of photos of bears and leaves, it’s beautiful and fun!
4. Plan your meals
Everyone came prepared with snacks (and beer!) for the first night, but for the second night, the hikers picked up all the elements for a classic Grill & Chill. The cabin had a few simple charcoal grills, but everything else was up to us. But hey, what a better way to spend your time than grilling and chilling with old friends?
The last night we got takeout from Boss Hogg’s BBQ in Pigeon Forge, TN. After a day of hiking, and a long, curvy trip back up the mountain, it sure tasted like the best BBQ we’d ever had! It’s a simple “Meat and Three”, but don’t get too excited about the sides, which were average compared to the excellent BBQ.
5. Plan a day trip to Clingmans Dome
Our second hike of the trip was a little more adventurous. A group of 5 of us drove to the highest viewing point in the Smoky Mountains, known as Clingmans Dome. On the top of the (very busy) mountain top parking lot, there is a steep paved path that leads to a concrete observation tower about 6,600 ft (2000 m) above sea level. While the views from the observation deck were pretty, the crowds and the “smoke” of the Smokies made the experience a little less magical than we expected.
This is the view from the parking lot if you decide to skip the “hike” to the top of the Dome.
However, based on Stefanie’s research we were close to another, more secluded scenic overlook, known as “Andrew’s Bald“. After making a bunch of jokes about our (hirsute) friend Andrew who was on the hike, we were on our way!
The 5 mile round trip to Andrew’s Bald was a pleasantly challenging hike. Parts of the trail were actually on the Appalachian Trail, and backpackers from around the world would occasionally swoop by. The hike was downhill on the way there, but it was uphill on the way back, so save your energy!
The trail itself went through very dense, old growth pine forests, and was quite hilly and rocky, but beautiful. The “smoke” of the dense fog would roll in and out, creating a blanket of soft air that would cool you down. The natural beauty was astounding, with so much greenery in the form of ferns and trees and lichen that it felt like you were in a rainforest.
The highlight of the hike is the “bald” part of the mountain that has a prairie-like hill, perfect for relaxing, camping, picnicking, or taking a hundred pictures (guess which we did!).
6. Stop in Gatlinburg for some Moonshine
We had never been to Gatlinburg, Tennessee before, but we have been to two places that we would compare it to: Myrtle Beach and Niagara Falls. That’s not necessarily a bad thing when there’s not a global pandemic! However, during this trip we tried to avoid any “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” type tourist attractions, and stick to the mountains. However, before we left we felt we had to “just look” at what the city is all about!
Instead of walking the touristy strip, or taking the ski-lift to the (crowded) Gatlinburg Sky Bridge, we decided to just pick up a little bit of moonshine on our way out of town. We visited the Sugarlands Distillery, (The Official Moonshine of NASCAR) which was following covid protocols as best they could, and offered an outdoor bar.
We skipped the tasting since it involved a group of people gathered around a table while a bartender dispensed shots (which looked fun and only cost $5, but despite the “sneeze guards” did not seem like a great idea given the current circumstances). We did however take advantage of the empty outdoor bar.
After sipping on their Apple Pie Moonshine here at home, we highly recommend their distillery!
7. Skip the highway and take the scenic route
Zach and I decided to drive through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park one more time to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway back into North Carolina instead of the boring highway drive.
On the way home we stopped at Waterrock Knob to explore more one more area. Our motto is “let’s just look” so I told Zach about a hike to an airplane crash from 1983 that I wanted to see. The hike to the top of the Waterrock Knob was pretty easy – a wide, well-maintained path that was steep, sure, but short and family friendly. There were even stairs with railings at some point.
We thought we would “just look” at the airplane, which was only a “short hike” off the beaten path. However, it ended up being the most grueling and treacherous hike either of us had ever been on! Steep, muddy and rocky trails, ducking under downed trees, and climbing wet rocks in the smoky fog of the mountains was actually incredibly difficult!
That being said, the sweaty, sometimes stressful, journey was worth it when we finally saw the sad scene of the crash. It was emotional and fascinating at the same time. Thirty-eight years later the plane and all its pieces were still sitting in the same spot. Hikers had put flowers there to mark the spot, and we stood, respectfully, and took it all in.
After surviving our insane hike, we drove through Hendersonville, NC to stop for some delicious German food. Heidelberg Haus restaurant was amazing and felt like home (to Stefanie). We started with rolls and Gulasch and we each had different Schnitzels. We will definitely be back for dessert and to check out their in house butcher shop!
Just Look
We weren’t expecting everything we saw on the trip, but we are happy we did! Take your time, enjoy the scenery, and plan ahead and you’ll have a beautiful adventure in the Great Smoky Mountains like we did!
