Photo Essay: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a great place for a family retreat

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the US. That’s hard to believe, as most people outside the US have never even heard of it! The park stretches along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, and part of the famous Appalachian Trail runs through it. There is much to do and see, from great skiing in the winter to beautiful rhododendrons in the spring; from cool watering holes in the summer, to gorgeous autumn colors in the fall. Its the perfect place for a family vacation, which is why three generations of us met there this spring.

Unfortunately, most people enjoy the sites of the park from their cars only, and during peak season traffic jams can be horrendous. This lazy way of viewing the Smoky Mountain splendor is having some impact on the wildlife, as a park ranger informed us. We happened upon him testing the water in a river, which he explained has become more acidic over time, a direct result of excess automobiles in the park. Trout fishing is one of the attractions to the park, but trout are very sensitive to pH, and so, sadly, their numbers are declining.

The only side benefit of people preferring the air-conditioned comforts of their cars, is that (selfishly) we found we had the trails pretty much all to ourselves. The weather was perfect, and everywhere it was bright green from all the new spring growth. While the rhododendrons had not yet popped out, there was plenty of beauty to see along the trails, and so far any negative environmental impacts were not noticeable to any of us.

There are many gateways to the Smoky Mountains. Gatlinburg, Tennessee is one of the most popular, and the closest town to where we chose to stay. We rented a big cabin with communal hot tub, private bath for each bedroom, pool table and satellite television, so that those who were not into roughing it (like the two grandmothers on the trip) could enjoy all their creature comforts after hiking the long trails. There were eight adults and one baby in total on the trip, so this was, for us, the most logical type of accommodation.

I was hoping to capture some Appalachian culture, but the town of Gatlinburg has become a big tourist trap and seems to have lost the authenticity one might hope for in a southern town. Nearby Pigeon Forge, which has the Appalachian answer to Disneyland (they got Dolly Parton world and the Dixie Stampede, y’all!) is even more of a tourist trap and worth a visit only if you like kitsch and crowds. For us, this was a family vacation and a retreat from the rest of the world, so we were happy staying on the trails and leaving the rest of the sites to the motorized tourists.