Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business Gatlinburg is the main Tennessee gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and it wears two faces.
This guide covers the best places to visit in Gatlinburg and the nearby parts of the national park, with advice on hiking, food, lodging, seasons and the parking rules you need to know before you go.
When the national park opened in the 1930s, Gatlinburg was a small mountain settlement known for its craft school, founded in 1912 by the Pi Beta Phi women's fraternity.
That location is the real draw. You can spend the morning hiking to a waterfall, the afternoon browsing the workshops of mountain craftspeople and the evening walking the Parkway with fudge in hand.
Gatlinburg's main street is lined with shops, arcades, museums and restaurants, and numbered traffic lights serve as local landmarks.
The Parkway is Gatlinburg's main street and leads straight to the national park entrance. Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Starting right on the Parkway, the SkyLift chairlift climbs Crockett Mountain to an observation area with sweeping views of town and the Smokies. At the top, the SkyBridge, a long pedestrian suspension bridge with glass panels in the middle, swings gently over a wooded ravine.
The Gatlinburg SkyLift carries riders up Crockett Mountain to a long pedestrian suspension bridge. Photo: APK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Above town, Ober Gatlinburg is Tennessee's only ski area and a year-round adventure park with an indoor ice rink, a scenic chairlift and seasonal rides. An aerial tramway has long connected it with downtown, and you can also drive up Ski Mountain Road.
North of downtown, an eight-mile loop along Glades Road and nearby lanes links dozens of studios where artisans make pottery, brooms, quilts, woodcarvings, leatherwork and jewelry. Many work on site, and you can buy directly from the makers.
Just south of town on Newfound Gap Road, Sugarlands is the first stop for many visitors. Rangers can advise on trail conditions and road closures, and a small museum covers the park's plants and animals.
Sugarlands Visitor Center is the main park information center on the Tennessee side, just south of Gatlinburg. Photo: Billy Hathorn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Reached via Cherokee Orchard Road at the edge of town, this narrow, one-way loop winds through hemlock and hardwood forest past log cabins, a tub mill and fast cascades.
Preserved homesteads line the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail just outside Gatlinburg. Photo: Missvain, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
From a trailhead on the Roaring Fork loop, the Trillium Gap Trail climbs gently through old forest to Grotto Falls, where the path passes behind a curtain of falling water. The round trip is about two and a half miles and suits most families.
Grotto Falls is the only waterfall in the park where the trail passes behind the falling water. Photo: Brian Stansberry, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
For an easy walk straight from town, the Gatlinburg Trail follows the Little Pigeon River between the edge of downtown and Sugarlands Visitor Center, about two miles each way.
Starting on Newfound Gap Road, the Alum Cave Trail is one of the most rewarding hikes in the park. It follows a creek, passes through Arch Rock and climbs to the overhanging cliffs of Alum Cave Bluffs, roughly two and a quarter miles from the trailhead.
Alum Cave Bluffs is a popular turnaround point on the trail toward Mount Le Conte. Photo: Blinutne, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Newfound Gap Road crosses the crest of the Smokies at Newfound Gap, on the Tennessee and North Carolina state line, where Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the park in 1940 and the Appalachian Trail crosses the road. From near the gap, a spur road leads to Kuwohi, formerly known as Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee.
Kuwohi, formerly called Clingmans Dome, is the highest point in Tennessee and in the national park. Photo: APK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
About an hour's drive west of Gatlinburg, Cades Cove is a broad valley ringed by mountains, with an eleven-mile one-way loop road passing churches, cabins and a working grist mill. It is one of the best places in the park to see deer, wild turkeys and black bears.
Cades Cove is the most visited area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, known for historic buildings and wildlife. Photo: Chris Light, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Breakfast is something of a Gatlinburg ritual, and the town is known for its pancake houses; the long-running Pancake Pantry on the Parkway is one of the best known, and lines form on weekend mornings.
Popular dishes to try in Gatlinburg
Downtown motels and hotels let you walk to restaurants, the SkyLift and the park entrance, which suits couples and first-time visitors who want to leave the car parked.
Cabin rentals in the hills around town, including the Arts and Crafts Community and Ski Mountain areas, suit families and groups who want space, kitchens and porches with mountain views; check access roads carefully if you visit in winter.
Where to stay in Gatlinburg
Spring brings wildflowers to the lower slopes from late March through May, and the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage offers guided walks each April.
October is the most popular month, when fall color moves down from the high peaks to the valleys; weekends bring heavy traffic, so go midweek if you can.
McGhee Tyson Airport, near Knoxville, is about an hour's drive from Gatlinburg.
Entry to the national park is free, but a parking tag is required for vehicles parked in the park for more than fifteen minutes.
Start with a pancake breakfast, then stop at Sugarlands for maps and a parking tag. Drive the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and hike to Grotto Falls.
Leave early for the Alum Cave Trail. In the afternoon, drive up to Newfound Gap and Kuwohi for the views, then return to town for dinner.
Rise at dawn for the Cades Cove loop and its wildlife.
Take an easy morning on the Gatlinburg Trail along the river, then visit Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies or ride up to Ober Gatlinburg.
Need a breakfast spot, a gear shop or a local service before heading into the mountains?
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