Originally Posted by GomerPyle
Originally Posted by bama_earl
Originally Posted by GomerPyle

If you're going to Gatlinburg for "nightlife", you're doing it wrong. The only real redeeming quality about the town itself is its proximity to the park. It is probably the most centrally located town to most of the most popular places within GSMNP...that's also why it's so incredibly busy. Go in a non-peak time of year, try to be there Sun-Thur and leave on a Friday if possible. Spend the days inside the park and then get dinner in town and maybe walk around for a bit and look at all the weirdos (there will be no shortage)...The people watching is about all there is "to do" unless you're into cheesy "moonshine" places or tourist traps like Ripleys Believe it or Not....that stuff ain't for me. We get up, grab some breakfast, then head into the park for the day.


We went to Cades Cove but I don't remember going to the park at all. I don't even think about the park when I think about Gattingburg. I just remember pancake houses, knife shops, and all that kind of stuff. We went with 4 other couples who had been before and they never went to the park from what I remember

Cades Cove is in the park.....but yeah, if you're going to Gatlinburg and you're spending little or no time in the National Park, then of course it's going to suck donkey balls. Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge without the National Park is basically just like a Walmart, a trailer park and one of those travelling carnivals that sets up in abandoned mall parking lots all got together and had a bastard child...


Got it... I guess we were in the park because we for sure went to Cades Cove... we are all big deer hunters so that was a must stop. Just don't remember getting out and hiking around to look at waterfalls or whatever the park has to offer.