Smoky Mountain Off Roading

On our second day down south we got up early and headed down to Bryson City, NC. The most direct route from where we’re staying is through the national park, but it’s been closed in the mornings for the last couple days… wild fires. Seems that half the big trips we take are in some way effected by fires: Colorado, South Dakota, and now Tennessee. It’s nothing like out west, but it meant that we had to take the long route around the park, which would take a little over two hours, compared to one and a half straight through. So we had to leave at 8 to get there at 10. And, of course, the route we had to take was full of long-term construction. Google factored that in, so we made it there a little after 10.

Having rented a few RZR’s before, we checked in quickly with Appalachian Off-road Adventures, the local Polaris Adventure place, and were off. The good trails were a little bit away, so the first half hour or so of our adventure was on public roads. The only side by sides this particular place rented were four seaters, which we had never driven before, and we both would tell you that the longer wheelbase was a lot more stable on-road. In North Carolina side by sides are legal on everything except highways, but we were really only on anything except for a back road for a couple minutes.

Polaris RZR XP 1000, before the mud

The rental place sent me a couple links to Google maps to get the most out of our trip. First was a bunch of decent trails up a mountain to a fire lookout tower. I, James, drove the whole way up. The trails were moderately traveled and maintained, with a few nice ruts and mud holes. As with most mountain trails we encounter, everything is a shelf road, just wide enough for one vehicle. For whatever reason, neither of us seem to have any fear of sliding off mountains when piloting performance UTVs. We twisted and turned up the mountain to the gate for the fire tower/cell towers, which was closed. Since we were again on vacation in a high fire danger area, we saw a few government fire people at the gate when we arrived. They were cool and we talked for a minute. They didn’t know much more than us about the area since they were only in for fighting fires. I didn’t ask where from.

Us

The tower that we could climb was only a 10 or 15 minute walk the rest of the way up the mountain, so we got to it. First forest “hike” of the year, and with it being steep we learned quickly it’s that time of the year to hit the gym again. We passed by a few cell towers and found the fire tower right at the top. It was only a couple flights of steel stairs and a pretty heavy steel door to get through to the top of it. It was quite a view up there, but we didn’t spend too much time on it since we wanted to get back to riding.

View from the fire tower outside of Bryson City NC

Hiking down was obviously much quicker than up, so in a few minutes after climbing down the tower it was Kacie’s turn to drive. Our other GPS spot was an old cemetery in the middle of nowhere on top of a different mountain. So off we went. On the way, we were told there were some more rugged pull-offs with some mud holes. So of course we were looking for them. And in typical fashion, for us, we missed them the first time. But, we turned around once we realized and Kacie went to bombing through them. It was a nice couple trails in which there was only one way in and out, so we couldn’t get lost and didn’t need to pay attention the where we were going. It was around there that we got soaked. I could describe it, but the video below does a better job.

After wondering through those trails a bit we were back on the way to the old cemetery. Half back tracking down the way we got to the tower. It wasn’t too hard to find with GPS and some of those trails were pretty nice too. We didn’t look around the graves or anything, so I couldn’t tell you how old any of them were, but it looked like there were old and new, probably old mountain families, but it looked well maintained, considering where it was. We cruised around some of the more fun trails around there until it was time to head back. I drove back to the rental place since Kacie didn’t want to drive on public roads. Below is a super-cut of us riding around.

Once we returned the RZR, we were talking to the couple that owns it and asked what the little town of Bryson City had to offer in the way of food, since we were hungry and hadn’t eaten all day. They recommended a place on main street that seemed like it just opened. It was a pretty nice place. I had a cheesesteak and Kacie had a chicken parm sandwich. Both were good. The best part on this day was the refillable drinks since it was unseasonably hot around here, hitting about 93 that day. After that, we stopped for gas in the Bronco and headed back through Great Smokey Mountain National Park, which was now open later in the day.

RZR after some mud

The main road through the park is also public, so you don’t need to pay or anything to use it. Actually, there are no fees to get into the park, but you do need to buy a parking pass to stop anywhere. We hit the visitor center as soon as we got in to see what that was all about. Kacie went in and grabbed a weekly parking pass for 15 bucks, not bad. And although we now had the pass, we didn’t plan on stopping anywhere on this day. So about a quarter mile down the road after getting the pass Kacie saw some elk in the creek cooling off and we stopped so she could take pictures. After that we did stick to the plan and just drive the rest of the way through. This is the most visited park in the US, so there was no lack of people around anyway. We are planning on exploring the park on Monday when hopefully less people will be around. It’s still a very nice drive end to end, and we were tired from getting up and riding around earlier.

Wildlife on the west edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We had one more stop to make for a few things we still needed for our stay, mostly food. But since one of those things was pool cue chalk, Walmart seemed to be the best bet. We had hoped that this would be a nice Walmart, unlike the one at home. And it was a little better, but only slightly. It was packed, and since it was the first Friday of the month, it seemed as if the various people on government assistance were shopping for the month, with their whole families. Fun. We did find chalk, along with the meals we wanted, and got out of there, swearing off Walmart forever. Of course, eventually we will go to another one, but only for lack of better options. It was fairly close to our cabin, so we got home and made our bacon-cheddar-ranch chicken dish, with was pretty good. Of course we got home and immediately dropped the eggs we just purchased so, no breakfast tomorrow morning for us. It was only 6 of them so half a million dollars rather than a full million for the eggs.

After dinner we watched a few episodes of Justified and passed out. The next day we planned on wondering around the area outside the national park, more of the lesser visited spots in east Tennessee/west North Carolina.

Getting to TN, Gatlinburg, & Pigeon Forge

April 2, 2025 we took off on our next adventure. This is our shortest road trip we have taken yet - 9 hours door to door and we are in Tennessee. We are staying on the eastern side of the state between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We left at 9am on Wednesday morning and got to our cabin at about 8pm that same night. We made a few stops along the way but only needed to get gas once! On the way into town we stopped at the closest grocery store, Food City. We grabbed some frozen pizza for dinner and a few snacks/drinks then unloaded when we got here.

Our place has a bridge from the car to the house and it is lit up with torch lights at night. There is a giant foundation under the car area and the house with steel beams running the length of the bridge. There is a porch out front with a small gas fireplace and a hot tub. Inside we have 2 floors - the kitchen and a living room on the main floor with a little eating nook. The second floor has 2 bedrooms - 1 with a sofa and TV to hang out and the other has a pool table.

The rest of Wednesday was uneventful. After a day of driving we were pretty tired. We booked our off roading trip for Friday and got some sleep.

Day one of TN we thought we would check out the towns around us. We started off getting breakfast and tried to go to a place called “Morning Mist Restaurant and Cafe” but when we got there they weren’t open. You know us, we didn’t get there too early…. We ran into 2 shop owners next to the place and they said the cafe was usually open by 10am when we got there and they weren’t sure what happened. I hope everyone there is OK. We walked across the street to “Timbers Log Cabin”. The address is Gatlinburg but it is outside of the downtown area. They were very nice and had a deck outside where we ate. You go in and order at the counter and then can sit anywhere you want to. We both ended up ordering lunch because it looked delicious. I’m sure you can guess what James had…I had a BLT with a fried egg. It was delicious.

There was a little area to walk around outside the restaurant. There was a small bookstore, some soaps, jewelry, and a glass blower. We went to the glass blowing shop and bought this beautiful glass flower. I almost went with a pumpkin but this flower was something I hadn’t seen before and I can’t wait to put it on my mantel at home.

I also got a necklace from the jeweler. She was very nice and had beautiful stones made into jewelry. She said she only chooses stones that speak to her for her shop. The shop is called Wire Wonders and my necklace is made out of green moonstone. I wore it the rest of the day.

I swear, we see the Amish everywhere we go.

After checking out this little craft community we drove into downtown Gatlinburg. My first impression was there were a lot of people there for a Thursday. People were everywhere and even the parking garage we parked in only had 30 spaces left. It was on the edge of town. There is a ski lift that will take you up to the top of the mountain for some birds eye views. We declined to wait in the line to go up. It looked like a ride at Disney with the number of people waiting in line.

We went to the Mountain Mall which is a 6 story mall with anywhere from 2-6 stores per floor. On the bottom level is a record store and I got a Dolly Parton greatest hits that I can’t wait to play when I get home! She was my first favorite singer that I can remember from when I was a kid. The rest of the stores were a little disappointing. But the bathrooms were clean and accessible.

We continued down the main street and found “The Village Shops” with an assortment of things to look at. Here we ate the very best doughnut I have had. The shop is called “The Doughnut Friar” and I highly recommend it. We got 1 to share because I was still full from breakfast. I still regret not getting another one. It was a hot day so we knew getting extra they would only melt and didn’t want to waste something so good.

By the way, there are bees everywhere!

After walking through the little village we decided to move on to Pigeon Forge and the Island. If anyone knows how to get to the valet parking here, let me know. We couldn’t figure it out. Anyway, we get to the Island - these 2 towns are really only like 10 minutes apart. There is a large parking lot and a free trolley taking you into the shops area. We followed a trolley into the parking lot, took a quick turn to get ahead of it, parked and hopped onto the tram in a few minutes. I don’t know how long it usually takes between trains but we got lucky and got right on.

There is a water fountain right when you walk in that goes off with music every half hour. We didn’t watch that until we were on the way out. We wondered around for a while. This place has a lot going on. With the fountain, shops, restaurants, food trucks, arcades, fair game stalls, a movie theater, and hotels it seems like this place doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up. There was a lot to look at and do though. We went to the “SkyFly: Soar America” experience. That was cool. Basically, going in they have a video with 2 steam punk actors going on about something. They end up saying they have a machine that will fly over the earth. You go into the main room and strap into a seat with your belongings under your seat. They get started and the floor drops out from under you and there is a giant video screen in front of you. There is a bunch of different scenes and they have speakers and mist coming down from above each seat. It was cool and I absolutely felt like I was moving.

We had dinner at Dick’s. I didn’t realize this was the place where the severs yell at you but it turned out to be fun. James had another cheeseburger and I had pulled pork with Carolina BBQ sauce and coleslaw. We each had a giant fishbowl drink after being in the sun all day. It was delicious. James was very happy when he found out we could take the cups home.

After dinner we popped over to Ole Smokey Tennessee Moonshine place and I tried 5 different flavors. The first one they gave - Blue Flame - was disgusting. It burned my tongue, my throat, and my cheeks. It was so bad. Then they gave out a pineapple which I don’t usually like those but after that blue flame it was actually really good. I tried a few others but the Blueberry Lavender was the best one. After we purchased a few flavors, we watched a little of the fountain show and then caught the trolley back to the car. We went all the way to the back of the bus because the lady driving said we should. That turned out to be a challenge when we tried to exit at our stop. We had to climb past a lot of people standing in the isles to get out. But we did, and made our way home.

Tomorrow we going to get up and leave around 8am to get over to Bryson City NC for our off roading adventure.