96 Hours in Tennessee: Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Just before the Thanksgiving break, I flew into Nashville and spent a few days between the city and Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was a whirlwind trip but it felt pretty chock full because it was so beautiful and fun.

J and I flew down on Friday night, checked into our hotel and immediately headed out for cocktails.

We stayed at The Gallatin, which J picked on a whim for how quirky and weird it looked. Turns out, they're a really cool place where a good portion of the profits go towards helping the homeless.

We headed about half a mile up the road from the hotel to the Fox Bar & Cocktail Club. It was a cute place with really delicious drinks and the 'build your own' charcuterie board was a nice touch.

In the morning, we got up, checked out of the hotel, and then attempted to get breakfast at the Nashville Biscuit House but it was going to be too long of a wait and I wanted to hit the road ASAP so we ended up grabbing some breakfast sandwiches and donuts at East Park Donuts & Coffee.

Then we headed east towards the Great Smoky Mountains, only stopping for a little bit of lunch at Daddy Mac's Down Home Dive

We entered the park through the Townsend entrance area. The Great Smoky Mountains are free (for now; I read that they will eventually start charging for parking next spring). We pulled off at a couple of pretty looking parking areas and then proceeded to the Cades Cove Loop.

We saw some deer and horses and turkeys and the mountains were so gorgeous that my camera just stayed on the whole time because everywhere we turned, there was something gorgeous to photograph.

For dinner, we went to Chesapeake's. We were truly unprepared for how jam packed Gatlinburg is. The main strip was a traffic nightmare and parking presented a little bit of a challenge but once we got to the restaurant and had some food in our bellies, we were much less cranky.

We stayed at 'Big Bear Cove' booked through Airbnb. The cabin itself was gorgeous and it had a lovely setup with a decent kitchen, comfortable beds, pool table, and hot tub. The fireplace is glass and lets you use it from inside or from outside; unfortunately, it wasn't working while we were there, which was particularly annoying because that feature was the main reason we booked this place. When you browse Airbnb spots in this general area, you'll note that almost every single one is basically the same with the same four amenities (hot tub, pool table, fireplace and/or fire pit, and whirlpool tubs).

The next morning, I was pretty excited because we woke up to gorgeous blue skies and we had the whole day ahead of us in the park.

The line at Pancake Pantry was too long so we grabbed some breakfast to go at Donut Friar

We started with a the Chimney Tops hike. Unfortunately, the actual chimney tops were closed off (due to damage from a fire) but the hike was gorgeous regardless. It was challenging, as you really rapidly gain elevation (the signage said 1,400 feet of elevation change over a 2-mile hike) but it was a well blazed trail with awesome views.

After our hike, we drove to Clingman's Dome. It was so chilly up there. The wind made it almost unbearable; I had to wear every single item of clothing I brought with me.

After a few more stops at various enticing viewpoints, including Newfound Gap, we headed back into town. Since I'd been unable to secure a dinner reservation for that night, we wanted to try and hit up some places early to secure a table without a wait. We ended up at Bennett's Pit Bar-B-Que where we were quickly seated and served. It was pretty delicious.

Once we finished up dinner, we walked around town a bit, stopping at Sugarlands Shine for a couple jars of moonshine to enjoy in the hot tub back "home."

xoxo