You never know when you’ll cross paths with a black bear, especially in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where two bears per square mile roam the United States’ most visited park.
With an estimated 1,900 black bears in eastern Tennessee, the bear is indisputably the region’s most iconic symbol. And Gatlinburg, a quaint mountain city famous for being the park’s Tennessee gateway, has the bear statues to prove it. (The park also straddles North Carolina).
Despite numerous photo opportunities with bear statues dotted around the city, I was hoping to see a real bear while visiting in early November. I didn’t have to wait long.
Shortly after checking into the Embassy Suites by Hilton Gatlinburg Resort, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, a fellow guest and I noticed a sign at the reception desk warning visitors to be vigilant since we were in “bear country” and she tells me she saw three cubs and a mama bear, at the nearby park entrance earlier that day.
I never would have guessed that within a few short hours I’d have my own bear encounter story but outside the park. It happened in the hotel parking lot as I headed out around dusk.
As I approached my rental car, parked near a rushing stream, a large adult bear suddenly popped up before me. I froze as the bear placed his front paws on the windows of a SUV, parked two spaces away from my car. He lingered there momentarily, peering inside the vehicle before moving to the rear windows then to the adjacent car.
I slowly backed away, relieved the preoccupied bear seemed unaware of my presence.
From a safe distance, I was able to film the bear, who eventually returned to the rushing waters before lumbering along the hotel’s fenced pool towards the woods. Needless to say, I stopped parking by the stream for the remainder of my Gatlinburg stay.
Tucked in a river valley with just 4,000 residents, Gatlinburg is the ideal basecamp for adventure, and not just the bear viewing kind.
It’s surrounded by miles of hiking trails, including 1,287 kilometres of trails in the Smoky Mountains, which is by far the most visited national park in the United States. It gets nearly 14 million visitors annually compared to the Grand Canyon, in second place, with 4.7 million visitors.
Gatlinburg is a welcome stop for hikers who come from around the world to walk all or segments of the Appalachian trail, considered the longest hiking-only footpath in the world. The nearly 3,700 km-long trail passes through 14 states, 115 km of it in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
It’s not only the outdoorsy type who appreciate Gatlinburg. The city also appeals to vacationers looking for fun who want easy access to some of eastern Tennessee’s top tourist attractions. Dollywood is a 40-minute drive away, while 15 minutes away you reach one end of the Pigeon Forge Parkway, an 8-km strip full of attractions, like the Titanic Museum, the Hollywood Wax Museum and Dolly Parton’s Stampede. I didn’t have enough time to see all of them but I’m glad I stopped at one of the most surprising ones to find here — the Titanic Museum, which has an exact replica of the doomed ship’s Grand Staircase, constructed from the original plans from the Belfast, Ireland, shipyard.
Despite the razzle-dazzle and bright lights found along Pigeon Forge Parkway, Gatlinburg is a popular tourist destination in its own right, with a main street chockablock with shops and restaurants.
Two of its most popular attractions, in the heart of the city, bring visitors to Gatlinburg’s highest points for panoramic views of the Smoky Mountains. They are the Anakeesta Mountaintop Adventure Park, located 182 metres above Gatlinburg and the Gatlinburg Skybridge, 152 m above the city with the longest pedestrian cable bridge in North America, stretching almost 213 m across a deep valley.
The Gatlinburg Skybridge, an engineering marvel opened in 2019, has glass panels at the centre allowing visitors to see the valley, 42 m below. The bridge can only be reached by travelling on an open-air, chair lift. Once on top of the mountain, there are plenty of vantage points for snapping photos from the SkyDeck, which includes two large viewing decks, a three-tier man-made waterfall feature and a cafe.
Just down the street from it is the Anakeesta Mountaintop Adventure Park, accessed by either a gondola or chairlift, bringing visitors to the top of the mountain and to the first of two levels of the outdoor adventure park. (They also have a vehicle that will drive passengers, who prefer not to take a chairlift or gondola.)
The park’s Black Bear Village has souvenir shops and eating areas, including the scenic Clifftop Restaurant where guests can dine on steaks, burgers and Appalachian favourites like fried green tomatoes or enjoy a quick bite at the Snack Shack, to name just a couple of its eateries.
At the very top of Anakeesta is the Firefly Village with another full-service restaurant, called the Smokehouse Restaurant, with great views.
It features in-house smoked meats like pulled pork, brisket and chicken wings, served in a setting centred around a wood-burning fire.
One could easily spend a full day exploring Anakeesta, whether climbing up an observation tower, called the Anavista with 360-degree views of the Smokies, walking along the Treetop Skywalk, taking a zip-lining tour or careening down a mountain coaster. There’s also a netted treehouse-themed play area for kids and the young at heart.
What I enjoyed best about the park were the many Adirondack chairs visitors could relax on and enjoy the spectacular views of the Smokies, which is exactly how I ended my full afternoon of fun on the mountainside.
Then, I didn’t have to go far to see Appalachian craft and culture with a visit to the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, located just a stone’s throw from Anakeesta’s downtown gondola lift entrance.
The school, the oldest of its kind in Tennessee, was established in 1912 as a settlement school by the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women, who would later improved the region’s economy by helping locals market and sell their handicraft goods. This proved to be critical to the region during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In 1945, Arrowmont became a full-time arts and crafts school and continues to offer workshops, gallery exhibitions and art outreach programs, both on-campus and on the road.
Thanks to its many one-week-long craft classes, like pottery making, woodworking and weaving, a new generation of craftspeople are rediscovering the early techniques and practices of Gatlinburg’s original settlers.
Among them is Jess Cox, whose grandmother Francis Fox is a well-known weaver in the community and who attended Arrowmont when it was a settlement school as a child.
Cox said her great grandmothers were also weavers but the skill had been lost until her grandmother Francis attended one of the school’s weaving classes and later became a master weaver instructor at the school.
“I’m very proud I come from a long line of weavers. My grandmother was the fifth generation who have been weaving here in Gatlinburg and I’m the seventh. I learned how to weave in my grandmother’s basement. To me it’s important when you consider just a couple of generations back, the women kept people alive by their crafts by bringing in money [during the Great Depression].”
She was able to learn more advanced techniques under her grandmother at the school, after enrolling in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program.
The school has an exhibit space showcasing Appalachian arts and crafts and a store where visitors can purchase unique artisan-handcrafted items, like woven vests, ceramics, woodwork, and brooms.
A few miles from downtown Gatlinburg, there’s another opportunity for visitors to check out Appalachian crafts on a winding, 12-km loop road called Glades Road. Local artisans who are part of the Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community, established in 1937, created the Glades Arts and Crafts Center, and have several shops, studios and galleries in or near the artisans homes along Glades Road.
Kim Pemberton was hosted by Tennessee State Tourism and Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, which did not review or approve this article. Follow her on instagram at kimstravelogue.
