NPS Unit Count: 74
Hey there Adventurers! May of 2024 saw the Sidekick and I take a Memorial Day weekend trip to Tennessee to check out the Smokys and some other awesome spots in Tennessee! Included in this trip were stops at a mountain top amusement park, a couple state parks, another NPS site in addition to a return visit to the Smokys, and an intense white water rafting trip!
Once again taking advantage of Southwest Airlines, we took a free flight from Florida to Nashville. The drive from Nashville to the Knoxville area is not bad, and there are several nice Tennessee state parks close to the interstate. Our parks’ goals were to explore places that had Bark Ranger programs, or at least had Bark Ranger items for sale, to check the info on the handy dandy map we provide over at #USBarkRangers! We stopped first at Cummins Falls, in Cookeville, just a bit off of I-40. The park highlights a nice waterfall and a gorge. Unfortunately, due to recent heavy rains we were unable to go down to the gorge, so the visit was short. But we did buy Cummins Falls Bark Ranger tags for our Bark Rangers!
As we neared Knoxville, we took a detour to check out Obed Wild and Scenic River, one of the NPS units in Tennessee, and one that offers a Bark Ranger program! The visitor center can be found in Wartburg, TN, though the NPS land is lengthy along the river, of course. The visitor center is dog friendly, as well! This site offers a free tag, a certificate, and swearing in of your Bark Ranger! Big South Fork, another nearby NPS site, is under the same administration and offers similar dog friendly amenities, but we were unable to make the trip to that site.
We managed to get into our AirBnb in Maryville early enough to still make it to the nearby section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, specifically the Cades Cove area. This marks my second trip to this park. My first trip was part of a roadtrip with another friend, and we were only in the Smokys for one mostly rainy day. Our early evening visit into Cades Cove was great! The history of the people living here in the Cades Cove area and the NPS is quite interesting. In a nutshell, there was a community here that was slowly but surely absorbed by the NPS through lengthy agreements with the people living there, and when the last resident left, in only 1999, the area all became part of the National Park. We stopped at some of the old structures there including the church. We made our way around the loop road and saw many bears, making this a very worthwhile evening excursion into the park!
The next day we got up early and headed for the obligatory sign picture. We entered the park through Townsend and drove up to Clingman’s Dome. (After this trip Clingman’s Dome was renamed for the old Cherokee name for the mountain: Kuwohi). As in my previous visit the dome was pretty fogged in, though some glimmers of distance could be seen in some directions. We stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center close to Gatlinburg, and ended up having a conversation with the ranger in charge of the Bark Ranger program there! It was a great 30 minute or so talk! It is important to note that Bark Ranger programs in the parks are an entirely voluntary outreach by the park. Some parks place more emphasis on this program than others and some parks are naturally less dog friendly than others. Great Smoky Mountain National Park falls into the latter category (bears). They do have a cool tag you can buy and a great certificate that the rangers will fill out. They will even do a swearing in, IF THEY HAVE TIME. This is the busiest National Park in the country and if the visitor center is slow, they will do the swearing in. However, it is rarely slow, so temper expectations! As far as dog friendly areas, there are two trails, one by each of the visitor centers, that are dog friendly. Other than that your pups are best off (and required) in the car or only outside on the pavement portion of overlooks!
The visit to the Smokys was only a part of this trip, not the focus, so that was about the extent of the Smokys part, but there was plenty more fun to be had! The next day saw an early breakfast at Sunliner Diner, a cool diner in Pigeon Forge, with convertibles you can eat inside of, before heading to the great tourist trap known as Gatlinburg, TN. But, in this case, the visit was well worth the money! We checked out a park called Anakeesta. After taking a tram up the mountain, you can access this amusement park. You will find some killer views of the surrounding mountains, plus some beautiful themed landscaping, restaurants, live music, and of course, some mountain roller coasters! After finishing up here we took a roundabout way back to our Airbnb, which took us past Dig’n Zone, a construction theme park in Sevierville. I am not going to say much about it except that the tickets were way too expensive. But we stopped in the parking to see what was going on. The Sidekick narrated a video I took, so we’ll let that do the ‘splainin!
The next morning was an hour or so drive down nearly to Chattanooga to grab a rafting trip on the Ocoee River. The sidekick and I have both been entertained for years by watching videos of a hillbilly river guide named Fast Fred (be sure click the link to get a sense of the man). He operates on that stretch of river and we managed to get him as our guide! The Ocoee is a dam release river and was also the site of the 1996 Olympics white water course! This stretch of river goes up to class IV, which are pretty significant rapids, both in danger and intensity. As expected, this trip was full of both! At one point the Sidekick got sucked out into a recirculation, but she was quickly rescued by another raft. She was, and continues to be, pretty upset by the whole ordeal, and cannot be blamed. Fast Fred made a mistake and told us to lean one way, and it was the wrong way. He acknowledged his mistake at the end of the day, but that just highlights that it is a dangerous activity and even the best and most safe guides can make mistakes! As for me, I can say that the beginning of this run had me skittish, then I was super stoked after going through the hard parts. Then seeing the Sidekick go for a swim was rattling.
Later that evening we ventured out an explored some of the Foothills Parkway which is a part of the Smoky Mountains National Park. If you are a driving enthusiast, you might know this road as an extension of the famous Tail of the Dragon drive. It had been an exhausting day and also the weather was suspect, so we did not venture too far down this road, but I did want to mention it since there is a sign there and I had actually not even heard of it until this trip!
Taken by me.
Our last day in Tennessee was the drive back to Nashville, but there were still some stops to be had! We made stops at Cumberland Mountains State Park and Burgess Falls State Park. Both of these are close to each other and pretty close to I-40. Other than a lake and a neat damn, Cumberland Mountains State Park was mainly a nice picnic and walk through the woods type of park. Burgess Falls was more of the hiking to a cool waterfall payoff park. After this trip, I can say I am impressed by the Tennessee State Parks. The ones we visited were very clean, well maintained, the staff were very friendly staff, and of course, beautiful scenery.
Overall Impressions: As my first real exploration of the Tennessee nature scene, I am a fan! It’s a pretty state with lots of fun things to do! Once again, be prepared for weather to play a role. The TN state parks are a real nice supplement to a trip through the state for sure.
The Adventurer’s Rating: 4.5 Arrowheads!
The Parks Adventurer 