Adventures in Tennessee
When B and I were planning our vacation for April (I had close to three weeks off work, so obviously we were going to go somewhere) we decided to look into crossing another National Park off our list. We decided on the Great Smoky Mountains and reached out to his siblings and dad, since his dad now lives in the southeast and we thought it would be fun to do a family trip.
We planned out a driving trip with all 6 of us kids (well, we're adults) plus Arthur down to Gatlinburg, TN.
Road snacks: a necessity. Arthur can barely contain his excitement.
Most of the people in our group only had the weekend off, so we headed down on Thursday. Coordinating 6 adults to leave Milwaukee at 4 am was no easy feat and we ended up leaving a half hour later than we intended, but mostly because B wanted to get thru Chicago before rush hour traffic got bad.
As anyone who has done a midwestern road trip knows, 90% of the drive you are going to be in Indiana, the longest and most ridiculous state. I listened to so many podcast episodes, part of an audiobook, and attempted to take a nap and WE WERE STILL IN INDIANA. Those of you who live there, more power to you. And why is the whole state under construction all the time? I swear the same chunks of highway were under construction a few years ago when we drove to Louisville.
Once we got into Kentucky, also known as Bourbon Country, the boys wanted to stop at Buffalo Trace Distillery. Fun fact: the distillery and the grounds are considered a National Historic Landmark.
Arthur is a Bourbon Dog.
Since we had Arthur with us and I was basically in my pajamas (because who wants to be in a car for 10+ hours in real clothes? Not I!) I took Arthur for a walk around the grounds while they went inside to check out the gift shop. B and the other guys bought some special bourbon. Oh, and afterwards one of the employees of the gift shop said that Arthur could have come into the gift shop because they love dogs!
While that was almost an hour added to our drive time, it was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine as well as walk Arthur around somewhere that wasn't a gas station parking lot.
The view from our AirBnB. Arthur is a Mountain Dog.
We decided to use AirBnB for this trip since there were so many of us and it wasn't cost effective to get a hotel. The one we chose was in Sevierville, which is 25-30 minutes away from Gatlinburg proper which ended up being fine. It slept all of us comfortably and it was nice that it was dog friendly. Arthur enjoyed being outside on the deck with everyone in the evening.
We planned out a driving trip with all 6 of us kids (well, we're adults) plus Arthur down to Gatlinburg, TN.
Road snacks: a necessity. Arthur can barely contain his excitement.
Most of the people in our group only had the weekend off, so we headed down on Thursday. Coordinating 6 adults to leave Milwaukee at 4 am was no easy feat and we ended up leaving a half hour later than we intended, but mostly because B wanted to get thru Chicago before rush hour traffic got bad.
As anyone who has done a midwestern road trip knows, 90% of the drive you are going to be in Indiana, the longest and most ridiculous state. I listened to so many podcast episodes, part of an audiobook, and attempted to take a nap and WE WERE STILL IN INDIANA. Those of you who live there, more power to you. And why is the whole state under construction all the time? I swear the same chunks of highway were under construction a few years ago when we drove to Louisville.
Once we got into Kentucky, also known as Bourbon Country, the boys wanted to stop at Buffalo Trace Distillery. Fun fact: the distillery and the grounds are considered a National Historic Landmark.
Arthur is a Bourbon Dog.
Since we had Arthur with us and I was basically in my pajamas (because who wants to be in a car for 10+ hours in real clothes? Not I!) I took Arthur for a walk around the grounds while they went inside to check out the gift shop. B and the other guys bought some special bourbon. Oh, and afterwards one of the employees of the gift shop said that Arthur could have come into the gift shop because they love dogs!
While that was almost an hour added to our drive time, it was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine as well as walk Arthur around somewhere that wasn't a gas station parking lot.
The view from our AirBnB. Arthur is a Mountain Dog.
We decided to use AirBnB for this trip since there were so many of us and it wasn't cost effective to get a hotel. The one we chose was in Sevierville, which is 25-30 minutes away from Gatlinburg proper which ended up being fine. It slept all of us comfortably and it was nice that it was dog friendly. Arthur enjoyed being outside on the deck with everyone in the evening.
This is the Air BnB that we stayed in.
Now, I'm always up for seeing new places and having new experiences. I will say this: downtown Gatlinburg is probably one of the cheesiest tourist places I've ever been. I'm talking three different Ripley's Believe It Or Not, souvenir t-shirt shops everywhere, and wall to wall people.
We did have a delicious lunch at Tom and Earl's Backalley Grill and did two little wine tastings (that gave me major gut rot) but it was nice to get a little walk around in while the sun was out. After about two hours, the clouds rolled back in and it started to rain again so we headed back to the AirBnB.
Since we were so full from lunch, we just snacked and had sandwiches for dinner and played What Do You Meme? with B's stepmom. A few people got into the screened in hot tub with some drinks.
Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Little waterfalls everywhere.
On Saturday, we only had a couple hours that didn't have rain in the forecast so we were going to head to the dog-friendly trail that starts in Gatlinburg. B decided to take a different route and go through the national park instead of into downtown Gatlinburg (since it was Saturday and when we were there Friday, traffic was literally standstill) BUT because of the days and days of rain, the road we needed to take was closed due to a mudslide. So we ended up doing a 4-hour drive through the park including the Cades Cove Loop, which is apparently where everyone tends to see bears during bear season.
Besties for the resties.
We got out a few times to take some pictures but because dogs aren't technically allowed in national parks, he could only be out in parking lots/at designated stops so we weren't able to do any actual hiking.
Little nature family.
FYI, there is no admission fee to Great Smoky Mountain National Park due to a grant that they got many years ago. It is also the most visited national park in the country since it is pretty centrally located and therefore easy to get to. The scenery is beautiful, although I found Rocky Mountain National Park more awe-inspiring but it's hard to compete with the 14-ers.
The drive ended up taking us 12.5 hours to get there and I think 11-ish hours to get back. When you have 6 adults and a dog getting in and out of the car at every rest stop, that really adds a lot of time onto your time on the road.
If you are heading to that area, I would say skip Gatlinburg all together and stick to adventuring and exploring in the mountains and the smaller towns. There are tons of little clusters of antique stores and roadside BBQ places off the beaten path.
And everything is closed on Sundays.