Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee

We are getting to where we have to make it to the Smoky Mountains area at least a couple of times a year.  We can't get enough of it.

We are getting into a thing too, where, there are some very specific things we like to do while we are there.  There are a LOT of things we have never done, and we want to do at some point....  but there are those things we look forward to doing again.  It creates a bit of a dilemma- are we doing the things we know we love to do, or are we trying something new?

We ended up going on this trip with another couple who hadn't been to the area in some time, so I think they enjoyed us taking them to the places we had gone to before.  The places were new to them, and safe bets for us.

We did try a few new things.  We had lunch at the newer restaurant, The Local Goat...  it's gotten some good reviews.  We weren't impressed though.  It was OK, but not great. 

We did try the Holston Kitchen, and we loved that place.  More on it later.


Otherwise, we pretty much stuck to the safe bets.

We did get to spend some quality time actually driving and walking around the park this time, and that was nice.  I know on our last trip I felt like a lot of the burn scars from the 2016 fire were starting to look better.  Well, on this trip, it just didn't.  We noticed a lot of burned areas.  I think, on this trip, we actually got a little deeper into the park and you could really see burned patched here and there.  That fire really did some jumping!

We again stayed at the Berry Springs Inn, which has become our favorite Inn- not just in Tennessee.  Its our favorite place to stay and I think we will always look forward to getting back to this great place.

BUT, we really like the Buckhorn Inn too.  Both are great, relaxing places to stay in the Smoky Mountains.  Luckily, we were able to enjoy time at both places by having dinner at the Buckhorn Inn one evening.

We heard some owls, saw lots of birds....  but I have still never seen a bear here.  This really bothers me, as a pal of mine says he has seen AT LEAST ONE on all of his trips to the area.

We spent some time on the strip in Gatlinburg, which is fun, but I think we spend less time there on each trip.  I do enjoy it a lot, but I feel the need to do more stuff away from that area each time.

Whatever you do in this area...  its gonna be fun.  I think of my trips here as very relaxing!