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Weekends can be pretty bad, but non holiday weekdays are low contact events.

If you do the Cherohala, when you are in Tellico Plains, stop by the Tellico Grains Bakery. There walls are covered with awards they have won all across the country. I had the best danish I have ever had in my life there.

I love when you wax eloquent Wagi!

Is Wabi the real mister Miagi?

Unless you count the Blue Ridge Parkway.

No mirrors huh?

"ok kids, gather around the cute bear cubs for a quick selfie. Maybe offer the nice mommy bear part of your Snickers bar so it will stand up again for the pic" ;-)

Grew up in Seymour/sevierville

Now live in Maryville. Which is close to Townsend

Your getting some good advice on how to avoid the pigeon forge gatlinburg tourist trap. I would advise you avoid it as well

The distillery craze is retarded. Most make crap liquor and it’s a tourist trap. Go buy a decent bottle and follow the next step below

Deflave gave you the best advise. Stay in room and plow. But since you probably don’t have the stamina and ability to go all day like a hard charger. We will continue.

Slumlord is pretty right about knife works( mostly)
Big percentage of time it’s a lard fest. I have hit it up when it was rather quiet and nice too though. But not nearly as often as lard fest. Lots of goofy stupid ninja and redneck knives with some good kitchen cutlery/high end in the mix. They seem to have decent firearm selection. Used to have a great ammo selection

Buds sucks

Not a lot of good gun stores there anymore unfortunately

Cataloochie is pretty cool. It’s better than cades cove in my opinion Cherokee is another tourist trap. Avoid unless you just have to gamble

Cades cove has some nice historical buildings and hikes. But typically lots of traffic

Leconte is a great hike. But you should probably be in decent shape and this time of year the weather can be quick to turn bad up there. So be prepared

Townsend has crap for restaurants and they are mostly all closed this time of year.

If you for some reason end up in the ER in Maryville make sure to say hello. I will probably be there working

Id take crampons for leconte right now. Rocky face and cable section will be iffy.
Would love to see OMC Hamcunt navigate that.

Cataloochee is nice and quiet as Kevin says

Be sure to check to website for closures over there. They’ll gate it off if a 6” sapling falls across the road

Then you’ll drive up through 8 miles winding roads thru Deliveranceville to encounter a shut gate.

Do not take Buzzard Roost road either.

If you like to spend a day driving swing by Tellico Plains then take the Cherola highway to the Tail of the Dragon. Have a late lunch at the Hot Rod 50’s diner in Alcola, try their fried chicken liver appetizers.
We been to the bakery at Tellico Plains, twice. Their pastries left a lot to be desired but the pizza and sandwiches were pretty good.

The lodge on Mt LeConte has been closed for a while. They shut it down in the late fall. At that altitude there is a very good chance of snow in January. The rocky parts of the trial will be ice covered too. That is my favorite hike though when the weather is right.

The Roaring Fork driving trail is just a few blocks off the main road from Gatlinburg. It is a one way loop similar to Cades Cove, but in heavy forest. Lots of old homesteads still standing There are several places to park and hike on that loop too.

The Elkmontn Ghost town is interesting. It was built about 100 years ago as a vacation town, but has been abandoned for sometime. The Park service is in the process of restoring many of the homes. It is behind the Elkmont Campground. An out of the way place most people have never heard of.

https://www.visitmysmokies.com/blog/smoky-mountains/about-elkmont-ghost-town/

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...y_Mountains_National_Park_Tennessee.html

Cataloochee Valley is on the North Carolina side and quite a ride from Gatlinburg. But that is where most of the elk are located.

https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cataloochee.htm

I was there in a cabin in Sevierville this week with my wife and it's really just a tourist trap to me. I'll admit to not really being a people person and honestly almost anything that draws a crowd sends me the other way. I spent a few cold mornings in SMNP taking a few photos of the locals that I can relate to. I'll try add add a few pics

Oh by the way I stopped by Smokey Mountain Knife Works and found it full of typical city folks with no idea what they were looking at. Most had several 5 dollar made in china folders in their hand. There were also a couple tweekers in the parking lot trying to sell their recently stolen goods. Yep I really don't care for most folks................

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Word of the thread, lard ass. I love it, lol.

Tail of the Dragon is a trippy kind of place. Came up to a wide curve one time and a woman was in the middle of the road flagging traffic to a stop. There were about a dozen people standing on the outward edge of the curve, staring at something downslope.

We were about five minutes before the rescue people appeared. One seriously dead, one seriously messed up, and two mangled bikes. They'd gone over the edge the day before and no one saw them sailing off and down into the trees.

They'd have been down there a lot longer, but a guy and his girlfriend pulled their bike over for a rest and the girl, whose hearing wasn't as far gone as her boyfriend, heard faint calls for help. Boyfriend crawled down for a look.

I used to watch videos of guys on big dressers not negotiating turns on the dragon tail and driving off the road. Youtube has a handful of them.

My girlfriend and I went and stayed near Townsend with our horses last October.
What they say about SMKW is true. Packed with people shoulder to shoulder. The lodge store was great though.
A great hike is to drive to Newfoundland Gap and hike to Charlies Bunion. An awesome drive to get there and you are hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Cades Cove is exactly as they say. We parked at the far end and rode up in the mountains. When we went to leave, we were tired from riding all day and my patience for all the tourists and their driving habits had me seeing red. We did see what looked to be a huge bear lumbering across the meadow on the way in, but did not stop for pictures and block traffic.
It truly is a beautiful area, no regrets visiting the area.

It's a fun road to ride as long as you stay on it.

google hiking in the Smokies. there's a lot of trails.My Leconte, Clingmans Dome, Cades Cove, NOC. there's trails all around these points of interest. you can access the AT and if you need a shuttle service go onto Whiteblaze.net, there's a list of services on there. Buds in Servierville is a joke IMO. check out Smokie Mountain Knife Works. BassPro is there also.

Bass pros are almost always a great place to take a dump.