Cades Cove Driving Tour in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park
If you visit the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for a day, a week or a year, you haven't seen the national park until you have taken the Cades Cove Driving tour.
Other than elk, I have observed every animal that I have seen residing in the park in Cades Cove and the surrounding hiking trails that emanate from the Cades Cove valley floor.
Depending on the time of day, time of the year, day of the week or mode of transportation, the 11 mile loop can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. Since this is such a heavily traveled one lane one way road sees approximately 2 million visitors a years, between the numerous detractions of beautiful vistas, historic building and wildlife crossing the road, delays on the Cades Cove loop are the norm and not the exception.
Peak times where the most visitors are seen in Cades Cove is the July and August and leaf season which runs through mid October into early November. You will also find that the late after until sunset the traffic also increases due the increased in wildlife sighting in the 6,800 acre valley.
Cades Cove is located in the far western Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It is closest to Townsend (formally know as Tuckaleechee Cove) Tennessee being only 9 miles away. Gatlinburg TN is 25 miles away from the Cove entrance and it is 56 miles from Cherokee North Carolina.
There are no facilities, drinking fountains, food vendors, pay phones or gas. Cell phones do not work in the valley or on any of the trails in the mountains surrounding the valley - even at the peaks there is no signal. Halfway through the loop you will find a small visitor center that does have drinking water and toilets.
Dawn breaks over mountains surrounding Cades Cove. Yellow spring wild flowers and horses in the field.
Before taking the tour, read about the History of Cades Cove and please make sure that you will have enough gas to not only take the loop, but get you back to at least Townsend TN where the closest gas station is.
As in all areas of the park, disturbing and removing wildlife and artifacts is prohibited. Fishing is allowed in Cades Cove but please know and follow the Smoky Mountain National Park fishing regulations.
If you wish to take pictures or observe wildlife, do not block traffic but use one of the many turnoffs you will find all along the Cades Cove loop. You will be driving by many fields and meadows and you are allowed to explore, picnic and enjoy any of them by foot. Sometimes horses are tuned out by the Cades Cove Stables into the fields to graze and it is best to not enter fields where there are horses as some may become territorial and aggressive without provocation.
What ever way you wish to experience Cades Cove, you will first pass the Orientation Shelter and parking lot at the start of the Cades Cove Loop. If you are planning on hiking the Rich Mountain Loop trail which will take you to the Crooked Arm Ridge trail and the Indian Grave Gap trail, park here and on the right of the entrance gate you will find the trailhead.
The orientation shelter has an interesting display which shows how the Appalachian Mountains were formed 240 million years ago and through a series of faulting and uplifting geologic events, the older rocks have eroded away to expose the younger limestone rock.
The predominance of limestone in the area help form the rock formations and caves and that dot the area and have altered the soil chemistry and PH allowing plants that would not normally thrive in the park do so.
Cades Cove Driving Tour Stop 1
When you first enter the Cades Cove loop to the left is a field which in the spring has beautiful yellow and white wildflowers that set off the green grass of the meadows. Often you will find deer or wild turkey in the morning or late afternoon hours. Horses from the Cades Cove Stables are often turned out in this field making for wonderful photo opportunities.
If you are going to take pictures here, use the turnouts on the left of the road so you don't block traffic. When taking a picture of the field, be sure to take at least one photograph showing the fence for an interesting mood shot.
As you drive further on the right side you will see woods which open into a field with the Cades Cove Mountain in the background. I have spotted as many a 8 deer at once in this field as well as woodchuck and red fox. In leaf season this field offers a wonderful contrast of the green grass of the meadow and the brilliant colors of fall on the sides and the background. Since there are more than 100 tree species in the park, you will find a great variety of fall colors that change as the season progresses.
Wild turkeys can be seen year round in Cades Cove. Deer near the Cades Cove Mountain with fall colors.
Cades Cove Driving Tour Stop 2
Soon you will come up to marker number 2 which brings you to Sparks lane which is the first of two gravel roads that cut through Cades Cove. These 2 line gravel roads are useful to cut a drive short of weather doesn't cooperate or if the traffic on the loop is too heavy. I use both Sparks Lane and Hyatt Lane to allow me to circle back into the beginning of the loop from the back end the Cove.
Sparks Lane has actually been part of the Cades Cove road system since the 1840s and was named of Sam, Tom and Dave Sparks which were three brothers who were livestock herders in this area. If you pull into Sparks Lane and go halfway in and just stop, it isn't hard to imagine what life was like a hundred of yeas ago in the valley floor where horse drawn carriages traveled in this very spot.
Cades Cove Driving Tour Part 2
Cades Cove Driving Tour Part 3
Cades Cove Driving Tour Part 4.
