We are currently working in Georgia and we had several days off to do some exploring. We have been very fortunate in all of our contracts that we have either been in the mountains as soon as we walk out our back door or at least within a days drive of some beautiful peaks. So this time we decided to take about a 4 hour drive to Sevierville, Tennessee. For those who don’t know, this is just north of Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and Smoky Mountain National Park. A beautiful area if you have never been. Now for me it has been about 10 years since I have been to this area in summer or winter and Matt had only been once but for a short time and didn’t get to explore anything. We were excited to check this area out again especially since it’s so close to home.
Our first day in the mountains we headed out to Clingmans Dome the highest peak in the Smoky’s and state of Tennessee but to our surprise when we got there the road was closed for winter from January to March. You can still get to the dome but its a 7 mile hike one way and we didn’t have enough time to hike it. So we continued on to our next hike called Kephart Prong Trail. This trail ran along a creek and was about 4 miles all together. We would rate this an easy hike not much elevation change but a beautiful hike with several beautiful mossy bridges to cross. This hike was a little over half way onto Hwy 441 that goes through the park so on our way back headed towards Gatlinburg we stopped at several outlooks and view points, one being the Tennessee/North Carolina Line.
After finishing up our drive in Smoky Mountain National Park we headed into Gatlinburg which was super busy probably because it was a Saturday. Since we were bumper to bumper in the middle of Gatlinburg we decided to keep on driving North to Pigeon Forge. For us Gatlinburg reminded us of a circus lots of food and attractions, not what we were wanting to do but for some people this may be what you like and if so Gatlinburg is the place for you! On the other hand, Pigeon Forge was not nearly as busy as Gatlinburg but still had lots of restaurants and attractions just more spread out!
The next day we headed to Maggie Valley, North Carolina, which was about 1.5 hours from our cabin. The main attraction for us here was Cataloochee Ski Area. We had two of our friends staying with us and my oldest nephew and none of them had ever been skiing so we thought this would be fun to do with them. Matt had been snowboarding several times in the past few years and I had only been skiing once before. Now granted this ski area is man made for the most part but they do get some real snow throughout the winter so its a little different than your fresh powder skiing you get in the northern states. For me, I would say if you have never been skiing you should definitely start at a small ski lodge like this one to get the basics down. This ski area offers all you need as well. You can buy a day ski lift pass and they also offer rental equipment if needed. Maybe you don’t have waterproof clothing? That’s ok… you can rent clothing from the ski area or if you’re like us and want to just save a few extra dollars you can buy scotch guard and spray down all your clothing that may not be water proof. Believe me you want your clothes to be water proof because if it’s your first time skiing/snowboarding or even second time you will eat snow! All in all we had a blast and everyone enjoyed there day skiing.
The next day was Monday and our friends were headed home and my nephew had headed back to college so Matt wanted to get some fishing in. That morning we headed into town and hit up a fly fishing shop in Gatlinburg. Matt found out some of the hot spots for winter fishing and off we went to find the honey holes. We pretty much spent that afternoon along the river… and finally just before we were about to leave the river Matt landed a pretty rainbow trout. The fish were definitely slower and a lot harder to catch this time of year but it’s still doable.
Our last day of our mountain getaway we woke up to about 3-4 inches of snow! We had been watching the weather and saw that there was an arctic blast coming so we prepared with food and wood just in case we weren’t able to get down the mountain we had enough to get us through. Luckily the roads had been salted and we were able to drive on it but first things first we had to build a snowman! After building the snowman it was a must to soak in our hot tub at our cabin while it snowed. That afternoon we made the attempt to get out of our cabin and go into town. We had no problems getting down the mountain although I would recommend a 4WD vehicle if you go in the winter time just in case there is that unexpected snowfall. When we got into Gatlinburg it was a lot less crowded than Saturday and there was free two hour parking downtown. So we stopped and walked around and found ourselves in the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery. Of course we tasted some of there home made moonshine! Afterwards we headed back to our cabin for a relaxing evening before heading home the next day. We enjoyed this area of Tennessee and North Carolina and can’t wait to go visit again one day!
