Gatlinburg/Smokey Mtn area people.....

[BuddyP]

Heading down this saturday for a week with the whole Fam Damily (unfortunatly a month too early :P). Looking for some suggestions in the area for scenic places to go and places to eat. Mostly interested in "Out of the Way" places and places not swarmed with tourists or on the "tourist trail". Any advice greatly appreciated!

[JEFFTATE]

Carvers Apple House , Cosby Tennessee ..
http://carversappleorchard.com/

We ate there on RTTH's 3 or 4 ????
It was cool ..

[dropit69]

Hit up Bill he will give ya all the places to hit..the apple house was very cool and good food..

[Garymac69]

The Floyd Garrett Muscle Car museum is a great place to visit!

http://musclecarmuseum.com/

Gary

[Slick68]

Pretty much anywhere in Gatlinburg or in the GSMNP is going to be a tourist trap. Howard's steak house on the strip is a good place to eat, though. If you're into hiking trails, go to the Sugarlands Visitor center and ask for an older trail map. They update the maps every 4-5 years to keep too much traffic off of certain trails.

Big South Fork State Park, which is a couple more hours drive from Gatlinburg is a great park to go to. Much more scenery, and not as "commercialized" as the National Park.

We mostly do the hiking stuff, so that's really all I can tell you about.

[stage2ROUSH]

tail of the dragon !!! FTW !!!

[Bill Howell]

call me
865 eight five zero 8228
I may know a spot or two. I will be at Bristol for the fall race this weekend but not going until Wednesday or so.

[BuddyP]

Jeff, Darrin, we did the applehouse and really enjoyed it! Bill tried giving you a call. We managed to fill up our time pretty good. Would've looked more into hiking if kidlettes weren't along. I'm the outdoorsy type. Did a good amount of scenic driving. Wow these roads are a PT car's dream! Only so fun in a Tahoe with wifey screamin in the passenger seat. The Cades Coves drive was nice also. Heading back home tomorrow :(

[JEFFTATE]

You may drive over to Gatlinburg and on to Cherokee and Maggie Valley ...
There's some pretty scenery in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
The Cataloochee Guest Ranch is a cool place , off the beaten path on top of a mountain , and next to the Great Smoky Mountain Park .
http://www.cataloocheeranch.com/

Also , you may check out Ghost Town in the Sky .
They've had some troubles in the past few years and could probably use the tourism ..
It's a historic local amusement park . Opened in 1960 .
Off the beaten path .
http://www.screamscape.com/html/ghost_town_in_the_sky.htm

http://www.ghostowninthesky.com/

Ghost Town is ungergoing a lot of renovation , and a lot of the park is under construction .
You may be limited on what you can do there , but it is a piece of American history and you may find some interesting hidden treasures there ..

[BuddyP]

Well back home now. We did drive up to the NC border and back down. Thanks for all the info guys!