Cades Cove..... Blount County, Tennessee

Cades Cove

Blount County,Tennessee

Cades Cove is one of the most visited areas in the Great Smokey Mountains.
It is a sampler of everything the park has to offer. Cades cove is abundant with wild life. It also offers visitors horseback and hiking trails, fishing, camping, history, photography at its best, etc.

Cades Cove is best seen via Cades Cove Loop which is a one way paved road that skirts the bottom of the mountain . Traffic will be heavy in the summer, fall, and all weekends. While driving through the area you will find pioneer churches, cemeteries, farms, fields, trails and roads. You will leave feeling like you have stepped back in time.

Cades Cove was once known as "Kate's Cove" after a Indian chiefs wife. The cove was abundant with wildlife that later brought European descent frontiersman to the area. They cleared off the valley floor and built a community to sustain them. The families stayed in the area until it became apart of The Great Smokey Mountains. The cove was preserved to look much like it did in the 1800's.

For those of you that enjoy waterfalls as much as I do make sure to take the trail leading to Abrams Falls.

To get to Cades Cove:
(From the north)
Take I-75 to Knoxville.
Take I-40 east to exit 407.
Turn right onto S.R. 66.
Continue until the first major intersection in Sevierville.
Turn left onto U.S. 411 and follow 411 to S.R. 416.
Turn right on S.R. 416 and follow until you reach U.S. 321.
Turn right onto U.S. 321 south and west and continue until you reach Gatlinburg.
Continue through Gatlinburg.
From light #1,
it is less than a mile to the Park entrance and the Sugarland Visitors Center.