The Smokies by Car
They still grind corn sometimes by the old water-driven methods at the restored Mingus Mill, just up the road from the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.
But school’s in session at Little Greenbrier only for the sake of people who come to the park to see what life was like in the Smokies a couple of generations back. These living history demonstrations are sometimes offered in summer at various parts of the park. Check schedules at a visitor center or campground.
A few comments may save time and open new vistas for your driving in the Smokies. Within just an hour’s drive of each other here are climatic differences created by elevation. You can drive through the spruce-fir forests typical of Maine up near Clingmans Dome in late morning and be driving through lush southern hardwoods back near Sugarlands or Oconaluftee in early afternoon.
The roads are designed for scenic driving. There are numerous turnouts and parking areas at viewpoints or historic sites.
Traffic, winding roads, and the scenery conspire to making driving time more important than distance here in the park. Figure about twice the time to drive a given distance that you would for normal highways. Be on the alert for unexpected driving behavior from others—they may be under the influence of the scenery! Gasoline is not sold in the park, so check your gauge. Remember that winter storms may close the Newfound Gap and Little River Roads.
The main road in the park is the Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) between Gatlinburg and Cherokee. It is the only road across the mountains. Along it and at the Newfound Gap Parking Area you will get some of the best scenic high-mountain vistas in the park—and on the East Coast, for that matter. If you want to go still higher you can drive up the Clingmans Dome Road from Newfound Gap and walk up to the observation tower. Here you are at the highest point in the national park, and the third highest east of the Rockies. The reward is a 360-degree panorama of the sea of peaks for which the Smokies (and Natahalas and Unakas and ...) are famous. Clingmans Dome Road is a deadend spur off the Newfound Gap Road at the crest of the Smokies.
If you want to sample the Blue Ridge Parkway and also enjoy some beautiful mountain scenery from right up in it, try the Balsam Mountain Road, which leaves the parkway between Oconaluftee and Soco Gap. It winds for 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) back into the national park’s Balsam Mountain Campground. Incredible azalea displays will dazzle you here in season. If you are adventurous and want to try a mountain dirt road, continue past the campground to the Heintooga Picnic Area and the start of the Round Bottom Road (closed during winter). This is a 22.5-kilometer (14-mile), partially one-way, unpaved road that descends the mountain to the river valley below and joins the Big Cove Road in the Cherokee Indian Reservation. You come out right below Oconaluftee at the edge of the park.
Another view of the Smokies awaits you along the Little River Road leading from Sugarlands to Cades Cove. The road lies on the old logging railroad bed for a distance along the Little River. (The curves suggest these were not fast trains!) Spur roads lead off to Elkmont and Tremont deeper in the park, and to Townsend and Wear Cove, towns outside the park. Little River Road becomes the Laurel Creek Road and takes you on into Cades Cove where you can take the one-way 18-kilometer (11-mile) loop drive and observe the historic mountain setting of early settlers. If you are returning to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge from Cades Cove, try exiting the park toward Townsend and driving the beautiful Wear Cove Road back to U.S. 441 at the north end of Pigeon Forge.
Perhaps the most bucolic scenes in the Smokies are to be seen from the Foothills Parkway between Interstate 40 and Route 32 near Cosby, around the northeast tip of the park. Here you look out across beautiful farmland with the whole mass of the Smokies rising as its backdrop.
Other interesting drives in the park are the Rich Mountain Road, Parsons Branch Road (both closed in winter), and the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. At the west end of the park there is another section of the Foothills Parkway between Chilhowee and Walland. The parkway is administered by the National Park Service. A small leaflet, “Auto Touring,” is available for a small charge at any of the three visitor centers.