Tennessee and the Great Smokey Mtns

**zznɟ ǝɥʇ** · July 12, 2008, 04:50 PM

Well, it looks like I'll be heading out to this region for a few days at the end of July. Any suggestions on must-sees? I love hiking and camping and that sort of thing. I think I'll have maybe 2 days there, and one day for each trip (~8 hrs drive from and to Chicago).

Tell me your travel stories and whatnot!

**killerken** · July 12, 2008, 04:55 PM

There are a lot of great waterfalls to hike to. Grotto falls is a fairly short hike-you can go behind the falls and climb a good distance downstream on huge boulders and such. Rainbow falls is a long hike, but the falls are 80 feet high. I was just there. We went to Rainbow falls the day before we left, so we were beat. There are three or four smaller falls on the way up to Rainbow falls: without them we would have died. Also, MINIGOLF!

**Big War Bird** · July 12, 2008, 10:36 PM

Watch out for bears. When I was a kid I was attacked by a bear on a trail. No not really, but one did raid our picnic area and it ate my sandwich.

See Rock City!

and Ruby Falls.

There is a Cherokee Indian Reservation you can visist and get scalped (of your money.)

There are tons of trails to walk, they're everywhere. Just don't expect it to circle back like a trail at a local park does.

**JP226** · July 12, 2008, 10:55 PM

Watch out for bears. When I was a kid I was attacked by a bear on a trail. No not really, but one did raid our picnic area and it ate my sandwich.

See Rock City!

and Ruby Falls.

There is a Cherokee Indian Reservation you can visist and get scalped (of your money.)

There are tons of trails to walk, they're everywhere. Just don't expect it to circle back like a trail at a local park does.

psssh black bears. Nothing to worry about. I remember waking up a few years ago out west with a damn bear in the camp. It was just looking around, thank god we had the bear bag. I remember aother time in NC waking up early one morning hearing something go through te trash right out my window (which was open) and I thought it was my dog so I yelled at it and told it to get out of the trash. WHen I still heard the noise I rolled over and looked out the window and saw it was a damn bear not 10 feet from my head.

**CtrlAltDe1337** · July 12, 2008, 11:14 PM

Gatlinburg is a good place to go if your into all the touristy stuff, and then right next to it is the state park with several historical places and lots of nature trails. Cherokee is also near there. I went there just last month and its a very nice place. There are also several white water rafting places fairly close if your into that (they have both low and high class rapid sites).

and while we're on the topic of bear stories, I saw one there too