I'll be spending the next four days in Rocky Top country. Anyone have suggestions on things to do? Thanks in advance.
I'm not sure how old you are or what you are interested in. Just east of Knoxville, they have Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and the Smokey Mtns. Sevierville has an excellent muscle car museum if you like that kind of thing. Personally I loved it. Pigeon Forge is 6 lanes of pure tourist trap - slick track, mini golf, Dollywood, etc. That can really be a traffic jam depending on the time of year and day. Makes Katy Fwy at rush hour seem like a freeway - think Katy Fwy in pouring rain with construction and a wreck at 5:15pm on a Friday. Gatlinburg has the Ripley's Aquarium, which is pretty good. It too is filled with tourist stuff and lots of people and cars. But plenty of places to take your money for a half hour of entertainment. The Smokey's is pretty good. There's Cades Cove, which is a drive through national park where you can see real primitive houses from some pioneers. I'm always amazed at how these guys came in, fed themselves every day and provided shelter while building their house from trees by hand. My house would be about 4 feet high as I couldn't lift a log any higher - ok maybe 3 feet. I'd have to dig down a couple of feet to give me some head room which would convert into a nice indoor pool in the rain - sweet! And there is some wildlife. You should see some deer, sometimes turkeys and maybe even a wild bear. The problem with bears is that 1 car will stop to see the bear and won't move. You may be 30 cars back in line - you can't see the bear and you can't move. Once the bear leaves, the car moves and you can move only now the bear is gone - so you just stopped 10 minutes for nothing. That drive takes about 3 hours if you don't stop to look at houses. If you stop at a house, stop at the first or second stop - then skip the rest IMO. Also there's some good hiking like Chimney Tops, etc. And you might even catch a sighting there too. Personally, I'd pass on Clingman's Dome unless you'd like to get your heart racing from a ridiculously steep incline hike to see some dead trees - but it is the highest point in TN.
