Great Smoky Mountains 5/18 -- 5/23/2026 [Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

 Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains and part of the Appalachian temperate rainforest.   The border between the states of North Carolina and Tennessee runs northeast to southwest through the center of the park. The park contains some of the highest mountains in eastern North America, including Kuwohi (6,643 feet (2,025 m)), Mount Guyot, and Mount Le Conte.  World renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains, and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture, this is America's most visited national park (over 12 million visitors in 2024).

Getting there ...

We flew from Chicago (after Iris's wedding) at 7:15AM to Asheville (AVL @ 10AM), NC.  We got our rental and had a quick drive-through at a McDonald's, and we were in the Great Smoky Mountains around noon.

Day 1 (5/18) ...

• Blue Ridge Parkway
  The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic 469-mile motor road connecting Shenandoah National Park (Virginia) to Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina). Known as "America's Favorite Drive", it is the longest linear park in the U.S. and features breathtaking mountain vistas and hiking trails.   We entered the Great Smoky Mountains National Park via the Blue Ridge Parkway (the westernmost 15 miles), and stopped by a few viewpoints along the parkway.
  

• Oconaluftee & Mountain Farm Museum
  Oconaluftee is the southern gateway to the Smokies.   The nearby Mountain Farm Museum is a unique collection of historic farm buildings that showcases what life was like in a typical rural Appalachian community over a century ago.

• Mingus Mill
  Built in 1886, Mingus Mill is a historic 19th-century gristmill with a functioning water-powered turbine.  The mill interior is temporarily closed for preservation and rehabilitation work, but visitors can still walk around the outside.   At the far end of the mill, we saw a timber rattlesnake, one of the only two venomous snakes in the park (of the 23 snake species found in the park, only two are venomous: the northern copperhead and the timber rattlesnake).

• Luftee & Newfound Gap
  We continued to drive north along the US441 and stopped by Luftee and Newfound Gap vista points.

• Elkmont Historical District
  Elkmont is a region situated in the upper Little River valley of the Great Smoky Mountains.   The Little River Lumber Company established the town of Elkmont in 1908 as a base for its logging operations.   Upon the creation of the national park in the 1930s, most of Elkmont's cottage owners were given lifetime leases (and later converted to 20-year leases).  In 2009, the National Park Service announced plans to restore the Appalachian Clubhouse and 18 cottages and outbuildings in the Appalachian Club area (which were older and more historically significant) and remove all other structures. 

•  Cabin in Townsend

• Elkmont
  After dinner, we went back to the Elkmont area to see synchronous fireflies.   The mating season for synchronous fireflies lasts approximately two to three weeks each year from late May to early June.  Although the synchronous behavior is not yet fully understood, one theory suggests that males flash in unison to elicit a call-and-response interaction from the females. A study found that female fireflies of this species only respond when an adequate amount of flashing is presented to them.   This year the NPS host its annual synchronous firefly event at Elkmont from May 20-27 with a lottery system to limit access to the Elkmont area during the eight-day period of predicted peak firefly activity to control the crowds.  We decided to come today (5/18) before the access control took place (we did not enter the lottery because the uncertainty of the dates may conflict with Iris's wedding).  We started to see individual flashing fireflies after sunset at 8:30PM.  After 9PM, we could start to see a small number of fireflies around the riverbed.   We waited till about 9:45PM, but we did not really see any large amount of fireflies flash synchronously...

Day 2 (5/19) ... 

• Cades Cove
  Cades Cove is a scenic valley surrounded on all sides by mountains south of Townsend.  A popular 11-mile one-way loop road encircling the valley provides access to hiking trails, opportunities for wildlife viewing, and chances to explore the many historic home sites, cemeteries, and churches.

• Abrams Falls
  After driving roughly halfway around the one-way Cades Cove Loop Road, we reached at the Abrams Falls Trailhead at the end of Abrams Falls Road.  It was a moderate 5-mile (8 km) round-trip hike through rhododendron, hemlock, and pine-oak forest  to a 25-foot (7.6-m) waterfall that flows over a ledge of sandstone into a deep, picturesque pool.  We had our favorite instant rice bowls (Onishi Onigiri) at the waterfalls for our lunch picnic.

• Cades Cove
  We had a relaxed break in our cabin in the afternoon to avoid the heat (~90F).  After dinner in the town, we went back to Cades Cove to drive the scenic loop again in the late afternoon to search for more wildlife.

Day 3 (5/20) ... 

• Cades Cove
  From May to September (May 6 - September 30 in 2026), Cades Cove Loop Road is motor vehicle-free all day on Wednesdays to provide opportunities for pedestrians and cyclists to experience Cades Cove without motor vehicles.  We rented bikes at the Cades Cove campground.  When we showed up at 6:40AM (the rental started at 7AM), there were about 20 people waiting in a line, but we were the only ones who had made a reservation in advance, and we were the first ones to get our bikes :-)
  

Riding a bike along the Cades Cove Loop Road was easy with mostly flat and occasionally gentle downhill/uphill terrain (we did walk our bikes a few times in some longer uphill sections, but we did not feel any stress at all).  There are a few downhill sections with steep curves and it is required (or recommended) to walk your bikes in these sections.  It was really a fun and relaxed experience to ride a bike on the car-free day:  you control your own speed without worry any other people, you can stop at anywhere at anytime (as long as you don not block other bikers), and you can easily spot wild animals and stop immediately or join others to view the animals.

After stopped at a bridge to see bears, Woanyu found her bike was gone (someone took her bike...).  We waited for a while and we decided to take another bike which seems belong to the person taking Waonyu's bike...

• Spruce Flats Falls
  After a hot dog lunch at the campground, we drove to the Spruce Flats Falls trailhead.  However, both Woanyu and I were very sleepy so we decided to take a nap in the car for about 20 min before we started to take the hike. The hike is only 1.7-mile round-trip with 430ft elevation gain, but it has some steep, rugged, rocky sections that may require some climbing and it was more challenging than we expected.  Near the end of the trail, rock slabs and boulders line the creek, and the multi-tiered cascade pours into a small pool.  It was such a beautiful surrounding.  When we sat there to enjoy the coolness of the waterfalls, Woanyu decided to take off her shoes and walked into the shallow pool.

• Gatlinburg
  When we got to Gatlinburg in the afternoon at about 5PM, the weather had changed and it started to rain heavily.  When the rain stopped at about 7:30PM, we decided to go out to drive around.   My original plan was to go to some vista point to try our luck to see if we could have some nice sunset after storm, but I quickly abandoned that idea and we just stopped at a turnout along US441 to photograph the forest and passing cars.

Day 4 (5/21) ...

• Grotto Falls 
  The weather forecast was really bad for the next few days.  I had to change my plan to choose shorter, easier, and safer (in rainy days) hiking trails.  We parked at Trillium Gap Trailhead on the one-way Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail Road to hike to the Grotto Falls. It has very limited parking space and we were lucky to get the last spot when we got there at about 8AM.  It actually started to rain when we got there so we stayed in the car for ~ 15 minutes before we started our hike to the Grotto Falls.  The Grotto Falls trail is 2.6 miles (4.2 km) round-trip as it crosses multiple streams and meanders through sections of old-growth forest and rhododendron to reach a cool mountain cove with mossy boulders and a unique waterfall you can walk behind.

• Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail Road
  The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a one-way road that allows visitors to immerse themselves in the lush, biodiverse forest of the Smoky Mountains from the comfort of their vehicles. Spanning 5.5 miles, this narrow, winding loop road invites traveler to slow down and appreciate the natural beauty and historical significance of the landscape. Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail treats visitors to views of rushing mountain streams, glimpses of old-growth forests, and well-preserved log cabins, gristmills, and other historic buildings that tell the story of the region's past.

• Cataract Falls & Fighting Creek Nature Trail
  After a lunch back in Gatlinburg and an easy stroll around the town (we tasted and bought some beef jerky and peanut butter), we went back to the hotel room to take a long break (although the rain has stopped, the forecast still predicted more rain shower to come).  In the late afternoon, we drove to the Sugarlands Visitor Center, and took the simple walk to Cataract Falls and Fighting Creek Nature Trail. 

Day 5 (5/22) ...

• Salt & Pepper Shaker Museum
  It's another predicted rainy day.  We decided to visit a small unique Salt & Pepper Shaker Museum, just 2-minute walk from our hotel across the street.  The museum houses more than 20,000 pairs of salt and pepper shakers from all over the world.  The museum was founded in 2002 by Andrea Ludden, a Belgian archaeologist.   Andrea started collecting pepper mills in 1984 and soon, salt and pepper shakers became the focus of her collection.  It's an amazing small museum.  We spent an hour wandering around, and every time we went back to the same display shelves, we found something new and interesting.
  

• In the same plaza, we did a wine tasting (strawberry and raspberry wines) at the Smoky Mountain Winery and visited Dahl's Chainsaw Art Gallery.

• Kuwohi
  After lunch, we went to Kuwohi,  the highest mountain in Tennessee, because the weather forecast showed ~ 2-hour window of "partially cloudy".  It turned out we could not see anything at all at the Kuwohi observation deck, a 45-foot (14 m) observation tower located atop Kuwohi, and accessible via a 1⁄2-mile (0.80 km) paved trail. The tower is supposed provides a 360 degree view over the Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia mountains on a clear day :-)
  Kuwohi is a sacred place for the Cherokee people and is the highest point within the traditional Cherokee homeland.  The mountain became known as Clingmans Dome following an 1859 survey by geographer Arnold Guyot, named for Thomas Lanier Clingman who was a lawyer, U.S. Representative and Senator from North Carolina.   The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted in 2024 to change the name of Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi,  the original Cherokee name for the mountain.

• Newfound Gap & Appalachian Trail
  We went to the Newfound Gap viewpoint and took a small section of Appalachian Trail.  Unfortunately after ~ 0.5 miles, it started to rain again and we decided to turn back.   The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost 2,200 miles (3,540 km) between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states. 

• Sugarland Valley Nature Trail
  We stopped at the Sugarland Valley Nature Trail because the rain has stopped and Woanyu wanted to find some salamanders in the river.  Although we did not have the luck to find any salamander, it was a nice walk in the woods (without rain).

Day 6 (5/23) ...

• Biltmore Estate
  It's still a bad weather day today.  We decided not to go into the park this morning, but went straight to our last destination, Biltmore Estate, before catching our flight home in the late afternoon.
  Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum in Asheville, North Carolina.  The main residence is the Biltmore House, a Châteauesque-style mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II (a grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt) between 1889 and 1895. The 250-room mansion is the largest privately owned house in the United States at 178,926 sq ft (16,622.8 m^2) of floor space and 135,280 sq ft (12,568 m^2) of living area. It is still owned by George Vanderbilt's descendants and remains one of the most prominent examples of Gilded Age mansions.

After visiting the house, we drove to the Antler Hill Village (still inside the estate) to have a quick lunch and free wine tasting.  There were not many tourists around the village since it was raining hard again...

Going Home ...

We were back to AVL airport at ~3:30PM and learned our flight (5:35PM) to ORD was delayed more than an hour to 6:45PM.  In spite of the delay, we still had plenty of time at ORD to rest and have a light dinner before our flight back to SFO.  We landed at SFO at 12:30AM (on 5/24 Sunday) and finally got home at ~ 1:30AM.  This trip combined some important family event (Iris's wedding) and our interest for nature (and our collection of US National Parks).  We had good weather and encounters of wildlife for the first 3 days in Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains, but not so good weather in the last few days around Gatlinburg area.  It's a good reason to come back the Great Smoky Mountains National Park again in the future (maybe in fall color season) to explore more of the mountains and forests.

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