Beyond the Smokies: Escaping Into the Wilderness
Happy Friday! It has been a week of avoiding dirty clothes, drying out camp gear, ordering delivery, and nursing our bruised and itchy bodies back to normal. It has been so hot and humid here that I maybe only left my house three times since returning from the wilderness last week? Now that I need to return to reality, I have finally written out this little summary/guide to our camping trip in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We ate well, got rained on a bunch, put some serious miles on our hiking shoes, and detoxed from our phones with glee.
For the first time in my life (?) I did not plan out our daily activities and leaned on the recommendations from the Park Rangers. I spent so much energy ensuring we were prepared to camp and live outdoors that I left the “fun” stuff to the experts. This worked well for us! I was pleasantly surprised! Look what happens when you release some control…
We visited the Sugarlands Visitor Center, just a few minutes from our campground, on our first morning to ask for recommendations based on the forecasted weather. I was looking for a mix of hiking options for cloudy days and the vista-viewing trails if we were lucky enough for the sun to peek through. The visitor center was prepared for operating during a pandemic and had good restrictions in place to keep folks separated and Park Rangers safe. We masked up the entire time, but this was not the case for all tourists. Unfortunately, TN does not have the same mask mandate as NC, so the mask split was really 50/50. Fortunately for us, most visitors to Gatlinburg don’t bother getting more than a mile off the road for hiking, so we were hiking with very low interactions with other people. We also completely avoided the “downtown” corridor and felt very safe at camp.
Speaking of CAMP. Look at that gorgeous campsite?? Wowee do I love Elkmont Campground. This is site E01 and I love it so so much. I would gladly return to this exact same site for another week. There is a pretty impressive creek that runs right through this campground and the white noise was a pleasant treat for sleeping. Our site had access to the creek, a place to tie up our hammock, and was just a short walk to the bathhouse. We also did not come across many mosquitoes because the water is so quick - big plus. We could see the other campers nearby, but the place was so quiet that I did not mind at all. This campground is also extremely primitive, so it weeds out a lot of rowdy groups. There is no electricity or water hookups at the site, the bathhouses are toilets only, and there is no cell service. A great escape is what I like to call it! Our packing guide had us perfectly prepared.
We started our mornings off with coffee and a hot meal using our camp stove. The camp stove really changed the game for our meal prep. We had full hot meals regardless of the weather (which was so wet!) and everything came together quickly. We packed snacks for hiking and typically skipped lunch. Our dinners were delightful and eaten very early! Bedtime was around 9pm because we were so tired and the evening rain kept us from enjoying late night fires, which really didn’t hurt my feelings. Below is a sampling of our camp meals. Maybe a camp cooking post is in our future? Who knows!
So! Onto the trails! We hiked four trails, biked the 11 miles of Cade’s Cove, and climbed to the top of Clingman’s Dome. Our itinerary is below:
Rainbow Falls: Our first morning after chatting to the Park Ranger was cloudy and wet so we decided to drive the Roaring Fork Motor Trail and stop off at Rainbow Falls. This hike is 5.4 miles round trip and a steady climb to get to the falls. The trail was well groomed and involved lots of creek crossings via fallen logs. The falls are quite impressive for being so deep in the woods and we spent 15 minutes at the base for a snack before beginning the descent back to our car. Get here early if you want to hike! There are not many parking spots along the Motor Trail and we learned the hard way after our hike how crowded the road can get on the way out. The Roaring Fork Motor Trail is a one-way loop with lots of pull-offs for waterfalls and hiking. We slowed down quite a few times for bear sightings and this is a great activity if you want to enjoy the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains from your car!
2. Alum Cave Trail: Just as we were about to head back to camp after hiking Rainbow Falls, the sun peeked out and we knew we had to take advantage of it. With rain and clouds in the forecast all week, I did not want to wait for the “views”. We immediately headed to the Alum Cave trailhead and started the 2.3 mile climb to the bluff. We were a little sore from our morning hike, but the sun kept us going! This is another steep climb to your destination, but you are rewarded with some great views of the Smokies. You can keep going beyond the bluff to Mt. LeConte but that was not in our cards for the day. Definitely save this hike for a clear day to truly enjoy the reward from the top.
3. Laurel Falls Trail: We did this waterfall hike on our way out of town because it was just a few minutes from camp and a quick 2.6 miles round trip. This is a very accessible hike on a paved trail with a nice space to rest at the top. This hike is VERY crowded and only really worth it if you start early in the morning. Every time we passed this trailhead in the afternoon the road was packed with cars. We started around 7:30am and had the trail mostly to ourselves on the way up. On our way down we started to see more people and masked up at the base as cars started to pour in.
4. Elkmont Ghost Town: While not a true hike for us, we did explore the old historic Elkmont cabins accessible via our campground one afternoon. The buildings are creepy and currently being restored by the National Park Service. This was a nice afternoon activity for our tired feet and we enjoyed it. This is also where the millions of fireflies can be seen every year in early June!
Cade’s Cove: We learned from our BFF Park Ranger that for the first time this year, Cade’s Cove would be closed to car traffic for the entire day, every Wednesday. The Cade’s Cove campground offers a few hundred rental bikes to ride the 11-mile loop and we knew this was right up our alley. We woke up early and made the 45-minute drive to the start of the loop, arriving around 8:15am. We just missed the first round of bikes being depleted (no one quite knew when it opened, turns out they start renting around 6:30am) and we waited on the list for about two hours. It was worth it! Cade’s Cove is stunning and worth it for biking or just enjoying with your car. We stopped off at many of the church pull-offs and saw plenty of wildlife. The ride is generally enjoyable with a few hills that require walking your bike (both up and downhill). The wide openness of the valleys was something we hadn’t yet seen in the Smokies and it was a nice reprieve from the dense forest hikes we had grown accustomed to.
And finally, we checked out Clingman’s Dome one morning and drove out to see the border between TN and NC. This is a beautiful drive with lots of opportunities to pull off for photos or a swim in the creek. We lucked out at Clingman’s Dome and arrived just before the rush so parking was not a problem for us. As with everything, go early! When we hiked back to our car (1 mile roundtrip) for a quick lunch around 11:30am, the cars were lined up for a parking spot. If you learn one thing from our hiking recs, please remember to GO EARLY. Always.
And that’s that! We are big fans of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and will certainly return for the multitude of hikes and waterfalls we have yet to explore. The park is about two hours from Asheville and be sure to swing through for some beer or tacos at White Duck Taco Shop on your way in or out. We rounded out our trip with a weekend in Boone at my parents house for more hiking and cabin relaxation over the Fourth of July. All in all, it felt like a safe vacation to take during a pandemic and we were always looking for ways to avoid human interaction. It can be done! Just be prepared and feel free to ask us any questions. Happy Social Distancing!
White Duck Taco Shop
