re: Questions about Cades Cove

I just visited over Memorial Day Weekend and have a few notes. Beautiful park, but the crowds are insane which we were admittedly unprepared for. Arrive and start the main attractions earlier than you think - ideally before 7-7:30. Early bird definitely gets the worm here. For hikes, use your discretion on what you are physically capable to do and bring WATER/FOOD. More than you think. Throw a small pack on your kids and have them be self sufficient.

- As an alternative hike I enjoyed.... we drove by the Alum Cave Trail lot around 8am and the nearest parking was about a half mile road side lot away. We passed on that and hiked the Charles Bunion Trail (about 8-9 miles), starting at the Newfound Gap parking lot. Hike was really nice with great views at the end, especially if you go quarter mile past the bunion to a beautiful valley opening (pic below). I'm pretty active and experienced hiker, and to me it was moderate, nothing too strenuous. Another person in our group hadn't hiked in her life and made it up, but is in pretty good shape. There were def other young kids out there. Interesting part is your hiking a piece of the AT and there were some thru hikers at a shelter resting 3 weeks into their AT journey. It was interesting talking with them sharing their journey. We also hiked Chimney Tops which was significantly more difficult because of the elevation gain.


- Cades Cove: To preface, I would say this place is really cool if you do your research, hit it at the buttcrack of dawn, and explore for a day at all the stops at your own leisure without cars. It's a one way loop road where you are purely at the mercy of people/traffic. There are roadside lots to pull off and explore areas. If you can rent bikes for a day, this would be the spot. I did not see bikes for rent at the entrance to the cove - do some research on this piece. Cades Cove also seems much more fulfilling and rewarding for your kids than a day at Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg. There's seemingly a lot of cool shite and history to see. So you don't make the same mistake we did, I'll lay out our experience due to traffic and our own faults/lack of planning.

We tried to hit this up lunchtime-ish as a last second stop before our way home. Traffic can be a disaster on the loop and it started 1-2 miles outside Cades Cove entrance. We toughed the traffic out thinking it'd open up. It didn't. Once we were in the cove, we were either going <5 mph or stopped. We cut back to the entrance at the first turnout, all in all traveled maybe 3 miles, and it took 2 hours in total, just in our car. If we had stayed all 11 miles, I'd guess 3-5 hours min just in the car.

The highlight was after all that hell, an obnoxiously slow driver in front of us who was holding up traffic, stopping for an extended period of time to take pictures from his drivers window in the middle of said one lane road, literally next to a empty pull out parking lot. I could not make that up. I felt this area could be better organized with shuttles or something, so you are not just sitting idle at the mercy of traffic, hours on end. It's hard to get on the NPS for the exceptional work they do and patience beyond measure.