Top Ten National Parks: No. 6
Discovering the Beauty of America's National (and other) Parks
Let’s get to it!
I hope that you have been enjoying our journey through our top 10 favorite National Parks. After this article, we’re halfway there!
Last time …
We told you why our family absolutely loved Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado! Go back and check that one out if you missed it, because it is truly a beautiful place!
Our number 6 National Park is …
a familiar friend to a lot of people!
That’s because this park is the number one most visited National Park in the United States!
(That’s a big clue!)
(For Park Name and pictures, keeping scrolling!)
Scenery:
Nestled among a certain chain of the Appalachian Mountains between North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee is this very well-known National Park that has beautiful scenery including waterfalls, meadows, and majestic mountain overlooks. I’ll let the pictures do the talking!
That last picture is a little smoky …
Because this is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!
We have been to this National Park several times, and we plan to keep coming back, year after year! (We check it out every time we attend Polishing the Pulpit). Great Smoky Mountains N.P. gets a solid 4.0 stars for scenery!
Variety:
From a key stopping point on the Appalachian Trail, to one of the South’s destination resort towns in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN, there’s something for everyone at this beautiful area of the country. Hiking, backpacking, fishing, and waterfall trekking are all popular here. Also, be sure to check out the charming meadowland surrounded by mountains known as Cade’s Cove, or hop on over to the border of Tennessee and North Carolina and visit Clingman’s Dome.
There are lots of extra fun activities to choose from, which we’ll mention in our Other Amenities/Recreation section coming up. 4.0 stars for this category!
Wildlife:
Okay, so if your goal is seeing a black bear in the wild (sort of — they tend to get a little acclimated to humans!), then Great Smoky Mountains N.P. is the place to be!
We’ve seen several! Just watch out! One time, we came up on a juvenile on a trail. (Thankfully, Momma Bear wasn’t around!)
There is also an elk herd mainly on the North Carolina side of the park, we hear!
4.5 stars for wildlife.
Camping/Lodging:
You definitely shouldn’t have any problem finding camping/lodging for your stay in the Smokies. There are plenty of hotels to choose from, as well as campsites and tons of cabins. We have stayed at Oak Haven cabin resort several times, and it is top notch!
Another place we have stayed at before is Wilderness of the Smokies, which is attached to the convention site for Polishing the Pulpit.
For Camping/Lodging opportunities, Great Smoky Mountains N.P. gets a perfect 5.0 stars!
Other Amenities/Recreation Opportunities:
Since this park is truly in a resort town in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area of Tennessee, there are TONS of options in this category!
There are plenty of options for restaurants and grocery stores. (Make sure you check out the Apple Barn — our personal favorite!)
There are also a ton of recreational opportunities like rafting and fishing, mini-golf, go-karts, Dollywood amusement park, themed dinner shows, and more. This is definitely a place you could spend a week-long vacation at!
Great Smoky Mountains gets another perfect score in this category — 5.0 stars!
Busyness:
This is the only knock for this park. Unfortunately, with this park’s greatness comes a ton of traffic and overall busyness, because this park is the most visited National Park in the United States, and has been for a long time, consistently having well over 10 million visitors per year. 2.5 stars.
Accessibility:
This park is fairly accessible from several different areas.
Here’s how far this park is from several major cities:
Knoxville, TN (Is Knoxville a major city???) - 1 hour northwest (closest)
Nashville, TN - 3.5 hours west
Atlanta, GA - 4 hours southeast
Charlotte, NC - 4 hours East
For accessibility, Great Smoky Mountains gets 4.0 stars!
Personal Experience:
This is one of our favorite National Parks, and the fact that we keep coming back year after year and still fall in love with it all over again every time we visit it gives this particular park a lot of bonus points. It holds a special place in our hearts, so for personal experience, Great Smoky Mountains gets 8.5 stars!
Overall Rating:
Great Smoky Mountains N.P. is a must see! The good news for a lot of folks is that its proximity to the east coast means that a majority of Americans are easily within a day’s drive of this park. (Sorry, you west coast folks! But I’d still recommend you getting over to the east coast to see it, just like I’d recommend folks in the east going to see the parks in California, Arizona, etc.!) Great Smoky Mountains comes in with a final average score of 4.69 stars, which makes it our number 6 favorite National Park!
Greak Smoky Mountains National Park — No. 6 on our top 10 ranking!
We hope that you will come back later as we reveal our no. 5 favorite National Park!
Until next time,
Keep exploring, friends!
— Chase
Beautiful area. One of the best places visit!