Explore the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
If you want to experience a sample of what the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has to offer, here are a few suggestions. More information is available at the Visitor Center.
Cataloochee Valley, about 45 minutes from Maggie Valley, is named for long picturesque meadow running the length of the valley floor surrounded by mountains on all sides. This small isolated area of the park offers hiking, camping, historic sites and possible viewing of the famous elk. An elk herd has been re-introduced into the park and calls the valley home. Elk were once common here but were overhunted in the early 1800s to extinction in the eastern states. Cataloochee Valley is home to a former mountain settlement, with intact preserved homes, churches, schoolhouse and cemeteries that can be toured by car and short walks. Pick up an interpretive brochure at the campground on the left after you get down to the valley floor that describes the historic buildings. To get there: Cataloochee Valley is accessible after a 30-minute winding car ride on Cove Creek Road up and over the Cataloochee Divide partly on gravel roads. The turn off for Cove Creek is off U.S. 276 near its junction with I-40. From I-40, get off at exit 20 and take your first right after exiting onto Cove Creek Road.
The Deep Creek area outside Bryson City is a gorgeous, easily accessible area of the park. It consists of a series of a moist, beautiful, forested coves following a network of creeks. There are large picnic facilities, large restrooms and changing facilities for swimmers, a campground, short and long hikes and the popular pastime of tubing down the appropriately named Deep Creek. Hikes include a mix of waterfalls, wide gentle trails following former roadbeds connecting the early communities of the area and strenuous trails and climbs to challenge the most experienced hikers. To get to Deep Creek, go to Bryson City and follow the signs.
Clingmans Dome is the highest point in the park on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. This trip involves a scenic drive along 16 miles of U.S. 441 (one way), the primary paved park road traversing the park. It winds slowly up 3,000 feet to the park divide on the state line where visitors are rewarded with one of the best views anywhere in the Southern Appalachians. From there, a 7-mile paved side road takes visitors even higher to Clingmans Dome. A half-mile trail then leads to the very top dominated by cool damp spruce-fir forest similar to the boreal forest of Canada. Several trails can be accessed here. The Appalachian Trail passes through here as well.
Big Creek— This relatively isolated area that is a favorite of locals has a camping ground with a bathroom, a picnic area and is the intersection or starting point for some great hikes into the Smokies. One of the coldest, clearest swimming holes in the Smokies, Midnight Hole (into which Mouse Creek Falls drops) is easily accessible, just follow Big Creek Trail for about a mile. Exit I-40 at exit 451. Follow the road past the Walters Power Generating Station to the 4-way intersection. Follow the signs to Big Creek.
