Chattanooga/Gatlinburg Trip Report - With Some Pictures

Sunday we drove to Gatlinburg - just under 3 hours, we made one pit stop just before we got off the interstate. Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is not on the interstate… you take a state highway about 15 miles south to Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg is after that. We drove straight to the parking for the airtram access to Ober Gatlinburg, parked (paid $5, that became a theme) and walked across the street to have lunch at Calhoun's, which was pretty good. Then walked back to catch the air tram to Ober Gatlinburg. The tram is basically a supersized gondola which takes you to the actual Ober Gatlinburg which is on the top of a mountain. Neat ride. When we got to Ober Gatlinburg… was not impressed. It's very, very dated. Most of the rides, you buy tickets, or you can buy an most-access pass (i.e. the pass doesn't cover some rides). One of the most talked about rides was this Mountain Coaster. We go pay to ride it ($15 per person) and then go in. Once we get in… we then see the line (you could not see it from where you pay). The line was long, slow, and HOT. After about 30 min in line, we estimate the wait is at least another 90 min (2 hours total). The kids decide to not do it, and we bug out, so basically a waste of $60. The kids did want to do these ice bumper cars - think bumper cars on ice - which they did and enjoyed. We then headed back down on the tram and went to the cabin. I'll write about the cabin at the end. There are other options for activities in Gatlinburg and if we had to do it over, we would have done something other than Ober Gatlinburg.



Sunday night, we did Dolly Parton's Stampede (formerly Dixie Stampede). Reservations in advance are highly recommended, so we had purchased in advance a package that included tickets to the Stampede as well as one day tickets to Dollywood. The main show starts at 830 (there was an earlier show option) and they recommended we get there by 715 as there is a pre-show. You enter the compound and go to the saloon, which is where the pre-show is, open seating. They had drinks and snacks for sale. There weren't many prices posted which was annoying, there is also no alcohol. After spending a small fortune on soft drinks, slushies, popcorn, and chex mix, the pre-show begins. It's a country music band and they were really, really, really good. Band is called Mountain Ruckus. When that ends, everyone is sent upstairs to the main show arena. The show is similar to Medieval Times… there is a show that involves horses and competitions, as well as some comedy. Lots of patriotic stuff too. You sit at long tables that surround the arena. Dinner is included in the show… and you eat with your hands! There was a soup, biscuit, whole roasted chicken, pork loin slice, potato, and dessert. Along with unlimited soft drinks or water. This was a really good show and I highly, highly recommend it.

Tuesday we slept in a bit and then headed into Gatlinburg for pancakes…. There are so many pancake places… but on recommendations we went to one called Pancake Pantry. It was very good…. But after we got there we realized it was cash only, with an ATM available. Places that do this annoy the living crap out of me, and this was somewhat of a theme in Gatlinburg… more than a few places were cash only. But breakfast was good, and after that, we walked around "The Strip" which is called The Parkway. Lots of shopping and touristy type stuff. I bought some Moonshine and Wife bought some Cotton Candy Wine - after we did some tastings! Around noon we got in the car and headed to Hartford, TN, for our rafting trip. It was about an hour or so away with a very pretty drive. Youngest was a bit too small to do true whitewater rafting, so we did an easier "family rafting" trip. The company we used was Rafting in the Smokies and they were great. We had packed a picnic lunch and ate at some tables there, and played in the river for a bit before our adventure began. Our guide - Ben - was awesome. We booked this in advance as well. We were on the river for about 2 hours. We learned the "town" of Hartford has 1 gas station, 2 restaurants, 2 stop lights… and 12 river rafting outfitters. The river was a bit crowded but not terribly. It was a fun trip. Afterwards, we headed back to Gatlinburg and ate at Alamo Steakhouse… a bit pricey but very good food.

Thursday we woke up, left the cabin, and then drove to the AppleBarn - it's a huge place with restaurants, shops, etc… all about apples! We bought some apple pancakes mix, apple butter, etc, Molly had apple cobbler. We then started the LONG road home - about 10 hours in drive time.

The cabin we got was through VRBO and was very nice. I wish we had gotten a little more time to spend in the cabin itself. It was on Ski Mountain - fairly high up above Gatlinburg. It was a split level cabin. The main level had a kitchen, bathroom with stand up shower, living area, dining area, foosball and pool tables, pull-out sofa, and back patio. Upstairs from there was a loft, with a loveseat and a chair that both had pull-out sleepers. Downstairs was a large master suite, with a king size bed, huge Jacuzzi tub, and master bathroom, as well as a laundry room. Outside from the master bedroom, was a glassed in sitting area, and then outside of that was an outdoor deck with a covered hottub. It was too hot to ever use the hottub but it was nice to have as an option. Having the kids basically two floors away from us - with several exterior doors between - was a concern, and the kids ended up sleeping on the floor of the master bedroom. If the kids were older, this would have been no big deal. But something to keep in mind if you book a cabin like this.

The only downfall of the cabin, was we had to drive everywhere, down the mountain, into town. There is very, very little street parking in the main area of Gatlinburg - there are a ton of parking lots available, the vast majority of which charged $5, cash only, for all-day parking (but no in and out). The cabin was super nice and I would recommend anyone going to look at this as an option. Having already done that, I think our next trip we may look at once of the nicer suite-type hotels on or close to Parkway.

There is one grocery store we found - Food City - which is somewhat on the way out of town.

i dig foodie pics

quote:

---

I never understood people's fascination with taking pics of food.

---

I am amazed a gatlinburg trip with food photos had no pancakes

quote:

---

I am amazed a gatlinburg trip with food photos had no pancakes

---

4th post.. those are rolled up pancakes

quote:

---

Dinner was a local pizza shack recommended by our Tour Guide - Mr. T's which was good and cheap.

---

Should have eaten across the street at 1885.

quote:

---

Frontier adding a nonstop from Laffy to Denver.

---

Our raft guide was from Denver and spent several years leading trips on the Colorado River. The way he talked about it, I definetly want to hit that up at some point.

quote:

---

Heading there on Friday with no itinerary. This will really help.

Thanks!

---

I'd spend a lot more time in the Park itself than the OP guy, but I guess it's a personal preference thing.

quote:

---

It was our first trip with two kids.

---

Its hard to pass all the stuff on the way in and say to the kids,"none of this fun looking stuff, we are headed to the park" It is just too flashy to hide from them