A Parent's Guide To The Great Smoky Mountains
If you're planning a vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee this year, there's a good chance that you'll have children going along for the ride. If that applies to you, and especially if your children are younger than teenagers, then you'll want to read on. This post contains a number of recommendations for things to do in the Smokies that are geared especially toward younger kids, or they're attractions and activities that are designed for the whole family to enjoy together. In the tourism business, we call that a classic win-win situation.
Harvest Festival Happenings
It's officially fall in almost every respect. The calendar says so, football season says so, and now that the daytime highs have dropped from the 90s to the 70s and the leaves are starting to turn and fall, nature says so as well.
6 Great Photo Opps In The Smokies
These days, everyone's a photographer, right? It's pretty standard for folks of all ages to carry cell phones, and the vast majority of those phones have cameras. As a result, we're probably taking more pictures and documenting our lives more right now than at any point in history since the camera was invented.
Park Visitor Centers Are Great Resources
If you plan to visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park this spring, summer or fall, you'll have hundreds of acres of unspoiled wilderness and native wildlife to explore. From hiking trails and campgrounds to historic sites and observation towers, there's a lot to see and do. After all, there's a lot of geographic territory to cover, and for those who may have never visited the park before, it can almost be intimidating trying to focus on the areas that might be of most interest to you.
The Bear Facts
It's the brass ring of any trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park – seeing a black bear, live and in person. Often, you can just be motoring through one of the park's thoroughfares or maybe hiking along a trail and see a mother bear and her cubs venturing out of woodland's cover and into areas that are occupied by humans.
A Busy Fall In The Smokies
Thanks to cooler temperatures, gorgeous weather and the transformation of foliage, autumn is one of the most popular seasons in the Great Smoky Mountains. Visitation to the area dips a little after Labor Day but then comes back in full force from late September into early November. As a result, there's always a dramatic increase in the number of special events and happenings in the communities of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville.
Wedding Bells Are Ringing In The Smokies
People from all over the world travel to the Great Smoky Mountains each summer to visit the national park as well as all the great attractions, shops and restaurants that are found in the communities that lie in the foothills. But that's not the only reason that people come to the Smokies.
Holiday Shopping In The Smokies
Although we all know good and well what day Christmas is every year, we always seem to fall into the same trap of letting time slip by. For many of us, before we know it, the days have lapsed into weeks, and we're staring Christmas in the face with little progress made in knocking out our shopping lists.