Headed to Gatlinburg next week

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PicNick

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Hello Adventurers! My future wife and I get married this Friday and are headed to Gatlinburg for our honeymoon. We are road tripping from Baton Rouge and stopping in Talledega for a night before heading on to the only Ten I See. I got a yard pass to do some wheeling during the trip, and I was wondering what are the must-ride trails along the way/in the area. I'll be in my Jeep GC WK2 that has a small lift and 33's, and I'd rather keep it on the milder side of wild since we have to road trip back home.

Also, are there any must-do's in Gatlinburg that aren't off road related? We've got a week to kill and so far only have a train ride and a spa day booked.

What are y'alls thoughts?
 

Big Jake

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Hello Adventurers! My future wife and I get married this Friday and are headed to Gatlinburg for our honeymoon. We are road tripping from Baton Rouge and stopping in Talledega for a night before heading on to the only Ten I See. I got a yard pass to do some wheeling during the trip, and I was wondering what are the must-ride trails along the way/in the area. I'll be in my Jeep GC WK2 that has a small lift and 33's, and I'd rather keep it on the milder side of wild since we have to road trip back home.

Also, are there any must-do's in Gatlinburg that aren't off road related? We've got a week to kill and so far only have a train ride and a spa day booked.

What are y'alls thoughts?
I can’t help you out in that area... sorry. I’m completely unfamiliar with it. Just want to say CONGRATULATIONS!! on your upcoming nuptials.
Jake
 
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CZHipster

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I head that way every year for Thanksgiving. I was looking myself when I came upon the "Great Smokey Mountain Jeep Invasion" website. It recently took place but they do mention a couple of trail rides and you may find some good info there. If you do, please share!
 

ru108

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I got a yard pass to do some wheeling during the trip, and I was wondering what are the must-ride trails along the way/in the area.
First off, CONGRATS! Second, apologies in advance for being long winded. It's been a while since I've been up in that area, but we're planning a camping/wheeling trip in the spring in the Smokies to get reacquainted with the area and then try the Georgia Traverse on the way home if time permits.

If you look over a map of the park, there are lots of hikes and natural attractions to fill in the time. That's what I'd recommend as a starting point. Mostly just depends on how bad you want to avoid crowds as to what you pick and how much time you feel like spending in town. There's also likely residual nature area and town damage from the wildfires a couple of years ago, so that may limit some of your options as well.

From what I recall, most of the "off-roading" in the park is a few paved loops (Cade's Cove and Roaring Fork come to mind) and fairly short one-way scenic drives (Parson's Branch in mind here, but that MAY be closed, so check the MVU maps or check at one of the Visitor Centers). Most of the unpaved stuff appears to be in and around Cherokee NF. Regardless, some pretty areas with history exhibits and such inside the park proper. IIRC, there's also some really nice picnic/day use areas around Fontana Lake and the dam.

I've got one trail route that I found a few months ago called Cherohola Loop #1 and #2 that I was planning to try while we are up there. It looks like a mix of Forest Service roads and pavement with part of it covering the Dragon's Tail in NC. From what I've been able to find, it was originally mapped as a sport bike route, so 4x4 should be doable. Maybe someone familiar with the area will chime in and give us both some info. Anyway, here's what I've got saved. If you've got a Gaia GPS account, open it and the USFS 2016 layer should be loaded as default, then add the USFS MVU map and Gaia road map layers to get the rest of the detail.

https://www.gaiagps.com/datasummary/route/d8650356d0d11baa961b77d1d4dba88e46666107/

Have a safe trip and enjoy!
 

PicNick

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I head that way every year for Thanksgiving. I was looking myself when I came upon the "Great Smokey Mountain Jeep Invasion" website. It recently took place but they do mention a couple of trail rides and you may find some good info there. If you do, please share!
Looking at their Facebook page, it looks like they took the Cades Cove scenic trail. One of my coworkers said that its a great ride, but like Ru108 said, its mostly paved. Definitely on our to-do list, though! I'll keep digging to see if they took anything that is more 4x4-esque.


First off, CONGRATS! Second, apologies in advance for being long winded. It's been a while since I've been up in that area, but we're planning a camping/wheeling trip in the spring in the Smokies to get reacquainted with the area and then try the Georgia Traverse on the way home if time permits.

If you look over a map of the park, there are lots of hikes and natural attractions to fill in the time. That's what I'd recommend as a starting point. Mostly just depends on how bad you want to avoid crowds as to what you pick and how much time you feel like spending in town. There's also likely residual nature area and town damage from the wildfires a couple of years ago, so that may limit some of your options as well.

From what I recall, most of the "off-roading" in the park is a few paved loops (Cade's Cove and Roaring Fork come to mind) and fairly short one-way scenic drives (Parson's Branch in mind here, but that MAY be closed, so check the MVU maps or check at one of the Visitor Centers). Most of the unpaved stuff appears to be in and around Cherokee NF. Regardless, some pretty areas with history exhibits and such inside the park proper. IIRC, there's also some really nice picnic/day use areas around Fontana Lake and the dam.

I've got one trail route that I found a few months ago called Cherohola Loop #1 and #2 that I was planning to try while we are up there. It looks like a mix of Forest Service roads and pavement with part of it covering the Dragon's Tail in NC. From what I've been able to find, it was originally mapped as a sport bike route, so 4x4 should be doable. Maybe someone familiar with the area will chime in and give us both some info. Anyway, here's what I've got saved. If you've got a Gaia GPS account, open it and the USFS 2016 layer should be loaded as default, then add the USFS MVU map and Gaia road map layers to get the rest of the detail.

https://www.gaiagps.com/datasummary/route/d8650356d0d11baa961b77d1d4dba88e46666107/

Have a safe trip and enjoy!
Great info! I'll have to load that map onto my (soon-to-be) wife's iPad. I really wish that I still had my Mustang so that I could truly enjoy the Dragon's Tail, but it's be a little difficult to offroad in a street machine lol. I honestly completely forgot about the wildfires, so I'm wondering if they've fully bounced back or not on the tourist head count side. We're both of the mindset that the fewer the people the better for this trip
 
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PicNick

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So we hit up County Rd 600-2 while we were in Cheaha State Park and I'm amazed that they still call that a road. Talk about a lot of fun for some novice off roaders! Got to use those fake e-lockers on the grand cherokee a couple of times due to heavily washed out areas. Definitely earned some pinstriping on that trail. Managed to use 4-low so much that the engine started over heating a bit

We were thinking about renting some Polaris rzr utvs and doing some mountain off roading in Gatlinburg, but everywhere that rents them won't let you take them off road.