Taking Gatlinburg, Tn Vacation - Cache Help

[+p8md]

My wife and I are taking a much needed vacation (without kids) to Gatlinburg area in the middle of Oct. I would like to hear suggestions on 1 or 2 great caches or coords of interest in the area. I'm looking for a location that may have a fantastic view or something that the general public may not see. I would also love to hear any non-geocache places to visit.

 

I will only be there 3 nights and will probably only cache one day and I want our day to be worth while.

 

I found this post from 2002, but it may be dated and not accurate.

other posthttp://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=35252&hl=gatlinburg

 

Thanks,

Mark

[+mtn-man]

Two questions... how far would you hike, and how steep *would* you hike?

 

For some driving sights, you have to go up to Newfound Gap. Stop and take it in. Then take the road up to Clingmans Dome. There is a 1/2 mile paved trail to the top and there is an observation tower at the top of the mountain. The views from up there are great.

[+p8md]

I’m up for anything, but the wife usually starts to complain after about 2 miles (one way).

[+primofam]

P8MD,

We went to Gatlinburg a couple of months ago. We go nearly every year. This was our first year to geocache and I found several places I never really new existed.

 

Some of the ones we went to were:

GSMNPS Rangers

 

Ogle Cache

 

Wiley Oakley

 

These are just a few but we had fun finding these little jewels. One was right under our hotel and I didn't know it until day 4 when I downloaded the coordinates.

 

If you hurry, there are a couple of jeep travel bugs up there.

 

Even though there are many, many places to eat- the Peddler is still one of my favorites. Enjoy.

[+mtn-man]

There is a virtual cache at the top at Clingman's Dome.

 

Top of The Smokies Virtual Picture Cache

 

Looking at the gallery, you can see why they call it the Smoky Mountains. From there you can go out to Andrews Bald. There is no cache there, but the place is just awesome. It is a grassy bald with views to the southeast.

 

http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/AndrewsBald_3840.asp

http://www.localhikes.com/HikeData.ASP?Dis...tateID=&ID=4519

 

http://hikingthecarolinas.com/andrews.php

http://hikingthecarolinas.com/andrews_bald_photos.php

 

It is a great place to sit in the grass and eat a snack or a packed lunch and enjoy the sun and the view. You get to see a rugged, rocky part of the Appalachian Trail as well. The one trick is that you hike down to the bald and then you have to climb the mountain to get back to the car. If you do it, take your time going back and enjoy the views and the surroundings.

 

By all means spend a day going to Cades Cove. It will be crowded and there will be traffic. Have a full tank of gas when you go in and just enjoy the easy drive. If you go early in the morning or late in the day you will see more deer than you can imagine.

 

Enjoy. I will keep thinking about it.

Edited October 1, 2004 by mtn-man

[+p8md]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I will definitely try to check these out! If anyone else has suggestions, please speak up!

 

Thanks again,

p8md

[+MountainMudbug]

Hi p8md, hope your trip is fun! We were just in the GSMNPark via Gatlinburg and saw the leaves are starting to turn yellow

 

There are many great virtual caches in the area that are all worth the time, especially if you'd like to take in some choice scenery!

 

-------

 

I highly recommend taking a drive along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail (turn at Light #8 in G-burg). Amazing scenery in any season, it seems to look different each time we drive it, and it is usually less crowded than the main drag thru the NatlPark. October often finds the Roaring Fork misty and eerie. Fairly winding and narrow road (and one-way for about 5 miles), but our mid-size SUV fits with no problems.

Can't say enough good things about this drive!

You could pick up some virtual caches along the way:

Bud's Tub - Short nature trail behind an old homestead site; we've seen deer here many times, and occasionally herds of wild art students can be sighted sketching and painting.

Grotto Falls - about 2.5 miles roundtrip; you can actually walk under the waterfall!

 

------

 

There is another nice virtual by the Sugarlands Visitor Center just inside the National Park, south of Gatlinburg -

Fighting Creek - a nice short hike with frequent wildlife visits (deer, turkeys on the lawns at dusk.... bear activity has caused the closure of this trail a couple times in the past)

 

------

 

Southwest of the Sugarland center is Elkmont Campground, with very interesting scenery and a couple of cool virtuals:

Elkmont Cabins - short walk along old roadbed that follows a beautiful river.

Elkmont Virtual Cache - drive right by it in a *very* unique area, really gets the imagination churning!

 

.........

 

Ok, I'm done plugging Smoky Mtn virtual caches now, but they really have given me much enjoyment and I continue to visit the locations over and over and over.....

 

MountainMudbug

- & TigerShark -

Edited October 5, 2004 by MountainMudbug

[+Eswau]

Jacque's Walkway is smack in the middle of all of the crowds of Gatlinburg. The difficultly is avoiding the muggles.

 

I made my first trip to Gatlinburg this summer and hit most of the local caches. Most of the ones I did were in parks or such (I usually went out caching while the wife and kids took their nap).

 

In case your interested - we ate dinner one night at the Alamo in P. Forge and really enjoyed it.

 

Have fun.

Eswau

[+DavidMac]

I definately recommend making the drive to at least Newfound Gap if not to Clingman's Dome- just make sure it's not a cloudy day if you go to CD, or you won't see a thing!

 

If you're looking for a more relaxed walk and want to learn a litle about the history of the area, take a look at Reading, Writing, and a Bit of History. You can either drive or walk to the virt, and if you continue about a mile up the trail you can visit the Walker Sisters cabin (one of the last residents to remain in the park after it's fomation). Metcalf Bottoms is also a great place to take a lunch, and it should be a little more quiet now that fall has arrived.

[+LuvWahoo]

Be sure to hit the Ogle Cache GCD97A. It is right downtown and has had 300 visits. It's a must for a trip to Gatlinburg.

If you are going to do caches in just one area, the Douglas Lake caches were very nice. We did a loop and came back to Gatlinburg the back way, and that was fun!

GC258A Start at this one and go to nearby caches. There are a bunch. Hmmmm, there a lot more than when we were in Gatlinburg last year. Honey, I think it's time to go to Gatlinburg again...

[+p8md]

We had a wonderful time. There was a little too much excitement for my liking, but it was fun. We got to Gatlinburg on Thursday evening and it was already dark. We rented a cabin with a view and the drive up to the cabin in the dark. The road to the cabin was at least a 45 degree angle upwards.

 

On Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful view. We headed out to shop and see the scenery when my wife suggested we take the cabin road up to the top and see the view. I had my GPS on and within about 1 minute we went up 500 feet. The view was great and my wife suggested I take a picture. I put the parking brake on, stepped out of the van, and took a picture when my wife started yelling “THE VAN IS MOVING”. Luckily, the door was still open and I was only a step outside the van. Apparently, I didn’t put the brake on enough! I hopped inside the van within about 10 feet of a major drop off. That was the first time I almost killed my wife.

 

After that excitement, we shopped for a couple of hours and went to the Cades Cove driving tour. It was a great drive and beautiful scenery especially when the sun goes down. I would highly recommend the driving tours, but give yourself plenty of time because there are many cabins and churches to stop and look inside.

 

That night, we sat in the hot tub and watched a movie. At about 2:30am that night, we were awoken by the smoke detector. After we were fully awake, we definitely smelled smoke. We found out the smoke was coming from the heating vents and immediately turned off the heater and called the maintenance number for the cabin rental. He said he was at least 20 minutes away. I opened the vent with the filter and smoke started rolling out. At that point I wasn’t waiting for the maintenance guy. I told my wife to gather the clothes and I was calling the fire dept. Just about that time, all the electricity went out of the entire cabin. I grabbed whatever clothes were in the suitcase and got out of the cabin. It was 2:30 in the morning and our only choice was to knock on the cabin across the street. They were very nice and called the fire department. Shortly after, the fire truck made its way up the steep incline and determined the heating unit had over heated, started to smoke, and tripped the circuit breaker. Nobody was hurt and nothing but a little smoke in the cabin. They refunded our money and put us in another cabin for the night. This was the second time I almost killed my wife.

 

After waking up the next morning, we went to see Grotto Falls and Bud’s Tub Geocaches and drove to Elkmont cabins. I would definitely suggest visiting Elkmont area. The cabins are very neat walk around.

 

Well, enough of my story… I hope to return next year with a little less excitement.

 

Thanks for all your help,

Mark Pate (p8md)

[+LSUMonica]

I'll be going to Gatlinburg next weekend so I appreciate all of the responses to this post. I may venture over to Asheville NC so if anyone has any ideas there, it would be appreciated.

[+Cherokeecacher]

Thanks for the great recap. Michelle and I were just up that way this past summer. Cades Cove was absolutely gorgeous. I have a very dear friend that lives in Knoxville and she took us there. We did stop and hike into the falls. Man it was great and we were lucky enough to get some great photos too. We plan on returning early summer 2005

[+sis]

i couldn't get my traveling buddy into geocaching when i went to asheville; but there's this fabulous inn to have lunch...great view with tables on the porch. i think is was called the asheville inn ?? (someone from around there correct me if i'm wrong). we took the elevator (behind one of the massive stone fireplaces) to f. scott fitzgerald's regular room he used each time he came to asheville. rumor has it, he asked for this room each time so he could flirt with the girls coming in...