If you are looking to make your summer vacation more budget-friendly, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an excellent vacation destination. In addition to the free admission to the park that has always been offered, visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are fortunate this year to have access to a wide variety of free guided walks and talks throughout the Smokies. Programs are offered every day of the week from June 21 - August 16, 2008 in several locations including Cades Cove, the Little Greenbrier School, Elkmont, Sugarlands Visitor Center, as well as several other locations. By taking advantage of several of these special programs you can make your vacation to the Smoky Mountains memorable while saving money at the same time.
Cades Cove Riding Stables offers several alternatives to touring the loop by car. Located just outside the entrance to the loop, the riding stable is open April through October and has guided horseback riding, carriage rides and hayrides around Cades Cove loop.
No visit to the Great Smoky Mountains is complete without at least one picnic in the park. But how do you decide which picnic area is your best choice? You should consider nearby actvities, crowd levels and location among other factors. Almost all picnic areas in the Smokies have a charcoal grill at each picnic table. Ultimately there are no "bad" picnic areas in the Smokies, but I have outlined my four favorite locations - places where you can achieve a "perfect" picnic.
Metcalf Bottoms, located between Gatlinburg and Townsend, is one of the most popular picnic areas in the Great Smoky Mountains. With picnic tables scattered along the Little Greenbrier River and convenient access to swimming and tubing, Metcalf Bottoms is the quintessential mountain swimming hole and is an excellent way to spend a lazy summer afternoon.
As a parent of young children I am always looking for the most child-friendly activities when we go on vacation. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park can be a natural kid paradise, with streams, a wide variety of wildlife, and unlimited space in which to run around and be as loud as they want. But while the Smokies in general is very child-friendly, many of the hikes are not. I have outlined five hikes in the Smokies which should be manageable by younger children. Of course, you have to use your own judgement since no one knows your child's limits like you do. But in general, these hikes are not terribly steep (rated easy to moderate by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park), fairly short ( 3 miles or less round trip), and offer something interesting to children.
Located off Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail just outside Gatlinburg, Grotto Falls is an excellent "first hike" for children. The trail continues beyond Grotto Falls to Trillium Gap, but if you choose to turn around after seeing the waterfall, the round trip is only about 3 miles. And the part children like best - hikers can actually walk behind the 25 foot waterfall. While Grotto Falls is not the tallest waterfall in the Smokies, it is still an excellent short hike and one of the most picturesque waterfalls in the Smokies.
Any visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park should begin with a visit to the Sugarlands Visitor Center. Located just inside the Gatlinburg entrance to the park, Sugarlands has a number of invaluable resources for planning your visit to the park.
If you are planning your vacation to the Smoky Mountains in late spring you will have a unique opportunity to witness one of the most spectacular natural light shows in the world. At several known locations throughout the Smokies a members of a rare species of synchronous firefly converge to quite literally light up the night.
Everyone enjoys touring Cades Cove, but most visitors never look beyond driving the loop and stopping for a tour of the grist mill. On your next visit I challenge you to be creative in how you enjoy Cades Cove and other areas of the Great Smoky Mountains. Check out Five Unique Ways to Enjoy Cades Cove to learn five activities you might want to try - or think of some of your own to post in the forums.
Among my favorite activities in the Smokies is going on hikes. No matter which part of the park you visit, there are trailheads on minutes from Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Townsend. I've hiked in every season and in all types of weather. And on almost every hike I will see at least a few people who are ill-prepared for hiking in the mountains. So that you don't become one of them, I want to share ten tips for hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains:
Ask visitors their favorite part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and most of them will say, "Cades Cove" . When I was a child my family and I spent untold weekends touring Cades Cove- and I never tired of visiting there. Rich in history, uniquely beautiful in every season, Cades Cove will make you feel as though you have stepped back in time to a simpler era.
National Park 
Any visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park should begin with a visit to the Sugarlands Visitor Center. Located just inside the Gatlinburg entrance to the park, Sugarlands has a number of invaluable resources for planning your visit to the park.
Ask visitors their favorite part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and most of them will say, "Cades Cove" . When I was a child my family and I spent untold weekends touring Cades Cove- and I never tired of visiting there. Rich in history, uniquely beautiful in every season, Cades Cove will make you feel as though you have stepped back in time to a simpler era.