We crossed over into Tennessee on Friday, April 30 driving the last 14 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and then across Great Smoky Mountains National Park east to west. We continue to be amazed at how beautiful the scenery is.
After a snack bag lunch we hiked (real hiking!) to Grotto Falls. It felt good to be out on the trail on a beautiful day. We didn't anticipate the number of people. Apparently it's still spring break in surrounding areas and lots of families were taking advantage of weather.
It seemed the whole state of Tennessee and maybe North Carolina were in Gatlinburg when we drove through! We've heard many times it's the tackiest, worst entrance town to a national park many times over. It does have a bit of that but I felt it wasn't nearly as bad as Myrtle Beach. It had lots of family friendly activities, restaurants, ice cream parlors, pancake houses, trinket stores, etc. but it just looked a whole lot better than Myrtle Beach. Being only two lanes wide and with the number of people in town the traffic was crazy so we were happy to find a bypass to Pigeon Forge.
Pigeon Forge was Hulbert heaven. It has it's own tacky qualities but wide open spaces and $29.95 rooms. We actually met a very nice couple in a parking lot in the Blue Mountains who recommended a particular room in the Twin Mountain Inn. We decided to trust them, made reservations and had a room with two king beds in separate areas plus a nice deck overlooking the Little Pigeon River. There was a huge leafy tree at our level so we had dinner from the grocery store on the deck with the sun peeking through the leaves.
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