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smoky mountains


kristy

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Pigeon Forge - Get a rental cabin. The main drag is kind of like a country bumpkin version of the Vegas Strip. The cabins are usually just off of the main drag, but seem like they are in the middle of nowhere.

 

Make sure you check out Cling Man's Dome :thumbup:

 

KillJoy

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I will be getting a cabin in Pigeon Forge and staying for a week at the end of this month. Been there a ton of times. I love the Smoky Mountains Park. Take the main drive through the park into Cherokee, NC. Lots of great places to stop and pull off along the way. If you are going after March 31, and the road is open, drive to Cling Man's dome and hike to the top and on top of the look out. It is the highest peak in the park and it is just a stunning view. On a clear day you can see close to 100 miles.

 

Also take the drive out to Cade's Cove. It is a very nice drive out and a pretty good chance to see some black bears. Drives in the early morning or early evening normally produce the best chances to see bears. If you come across a bunch of cars stopped on the roads, there is a bear.

 

Gatlinburg is a nice little tourist trap. The Aquarium is very cool and has a huge shark tank tunnel you can walk through. Also a little bit of a drive outside Pigeon Forge, there are some caves you can tour. Also there is a big Harra's casino in Cherokee on the Native American reservation.

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When my wife and I went, we rented a cabin that was between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. I believe that it was actually in the park area, but not positive. It was awesome. No cell service and a hot tub outside, among other things. We drove to a place to white water raft. Not sure what it was called, but it took about 45 minutes to get there. It wasn't too bad, just not crazy enough. We found a nice trail to hike as well. If you are into that, go to the station and they can give you suggetions on where to go.
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We hit up P. Forge and Gatlinburg almost every year. P. Forge is a dry town if that matters to you. However, Gatlinburg is just 10 minutes away and has booze.

 

IF you buy booze, OR ANYTHING in these 2 towns, just look at the clerk and say, "LOCAL" at the register. You'll get a MUCH cheaper price. Especially the mountain skylifts... they are free to locals.

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What kind of camping are you wanting to do?

I think we are going to rent a cabin 1 night and then stay in a tent 2 days.

 

IF you buy booze, OR ANYTHING in these 2 towns, just look at the clerk and say, "LOCAL" at the register. You'll get a MUCH cheaper price. Especially the mountain skylifts... they are free to locals.

 

That seriously works? I'll try it.

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I think we are going to rent a cabin 1 night and then stay in a tent 2 days.
Like, next to your car, or back on a trail? :p

 

If your up for a hike, check out Charlies Bunion.... it's prettier than it sounds. Be bear safe, no perfume. ;)

 

IF you buy booze, OR ANYTHING in these 2 towns, just look at the clerk and say, "LOCAL" at the register. You'll get a MUCH cheaper price. Especially the mountain skylifts... they are free to locals.

 

I'd quiz you if I were at the register, then I'd overcharge you more for being a poseur. :p

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If you are looking for a hotel park vista is super nice, Sean and I were going to stay there last year but he ended up getting sick so we couldn't go. We are looking into going sometime soon though!
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If you are looking for a hotel park vista is super nice, Sean and I were going to stay there last year but he ended up getting sick so we couldn't go. We are looking into going sometime soon though!

 

Why you parkin your whip in the ghetto?

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If you're into camping, it sounds like you may not be into the tourist-trap scene that is Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. While the Gatlinburg strip and shops can be fun to walk at night, I much prefer to spend my days in the national park. You truly can't see it all in a week or probably even two. I've been there probably 10 times, some camping and some in a hotel. There are difficult hiking trails in the park, and easy walking trails. Some are even paved and wheelchair accessible, so you've got to do some hiking. As was said Clingman's dome is a neat place to drive to assuming the entry road is open, and I personally recommend driving to the "Newfound Gap" within the park well after dark around midnight or so. It's a large overlook area open to the sky, and on a clear night the stars are amazing. There is no light pollution at all as you're at higher elevation and in the dead center of the park.
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IF you buy booze, OR ANYTHING in these 2 towns, just look at the clerk and say, "LOCAL" at the register. You'll get a MUCH cheaper price. Especially the mountain skylifts... they are free to locals.

 

ummmm does this work if you show an ohio id when buying alcohol

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i have good memories of that place as a kid... and they seemed like big mountains when i was a kid... like the 6ft Christmas trees used to be huge, but now anything less than 10ft is garbage. Those mountains... just really big hills. For a real mountain experience, i recommend Big Sky in Montana, or Pikes Peak here in Colorado... At the top of Pikes Peak, you can stand roughly 2000ft higher than the airplanes fly between CVG and COS airports... kind of mind blowing when you think of it like that... and its amazing how far you can see when youre 7000ft higher than anything else.
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i have good memories of that place as a kid... and they seemed like big mountains when i was a kid... like the 6ft Christmas trees used to be huge, but now anything less than 10ft is garbage. Those mountains... just really big hills. For a real mountain experience, i recommend Big Sky in Montana, or Pikes Peak here in Colorado... At the top of Pikes Peak, you can stand roughly 2000ft higher than the airplanes fly between CVG and COS airports... kind of mind blowing when you think of it like that... and its amazing how far you can see when youre 7000ft higher than anything else.

 

Been to Pikes Peak, sweet shit! Standing in clouds FTW! 14,110 feet, I'll never forget it.

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Pike Peak is for ballsy rally drivers or sight seeing pussies. :p

Longs Peak, do it. Getting the top the easy way is usually a 16 hour trip on a good day. It’s got a feature called “The Diamond" on it's the east face (the west face is on the Colorado Quarter).

9822 ft of prominence, 14,255ft above sea level.

If you just want to throw yourself off of something really high, the Diamond itself can offer you a 2000+ft drop past a million square feet of flat granite on your way to your maker.

The view from the summit takes in miles and miles of the Colorado Rockies to the North, West and south, and The Great Plains to the east. At the top, the Eastern horizon is 130miles away.

If you're going to climb a mountain, climb a mountain. :)

http://verivista.com/Trips/LongsPeak/LongsPeakSummitfacingEast.jpg

http://estes.on-line.com/rmnp/pics/diamond.jpg

http://www.math.unl.edu/~rwiegand1/Diamond/ChasmView.jpg

http://matthewbatesphotography.com/images/longs_peak_diamond_2.jpg

http://www.photohome.com/pictures/colorado-pictures/mountains/longs-peak-1a.jpg

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We made it a point to drive up the "coast" back from Florida last year and stayed on the other side of the Smokey Mountains (not Gatlinburg) last year. WE stayed at a campground with ok showers and electric called, Hickory Nut Falls Family Campground. It was GREAT, ask for a riverfront campsite.... you can see in the pic we were at 74, but 75, 76, 77 , 78 all great sites.... http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd58/reitzmj/DSC05309-1.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd58/reitzmj/DSC05324.jpg

People with real photo skills is this a decent pic...??? it was taken with a pretty basic camera....???

 

 

This was so much fun its really close to a awesome lake and just a all around good place.

Afterwards we did stop in Gatlinburg and did the Alpine Slides and walked around... etc....

 

Campground.....

http://www.hickorynutfallsfamilycampground.com/Campground%20Map.html

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