Smoky Mountain Stories

My husband and I were married 22 years ago this June 2. We took our honeymoon at the Smokies. We were having such a good time one afternoon we parked at just started walking the strip and had forgot that we had drove and parked. So the next morning when we woke up we saw our car was not at our hotel, so we called the police. With our embarressment the police when to look for our car and low and behold there it was in front of a put put golf establishment where we had parked it the night before and had forgot we were having such a fun time.

In the late 70's we were traveling in the Great Smokey Mountains, we decided to go to Cade's Cove that day with my grandmother Lucy, as lunch time approached we pulled the camper over and prepared our lunch while looking out over a beautiful field with mountains surrounding the edges. This is one of my favorite memories of the Great Smokies, my heart always calls me back, my husband and I love this area.

My daughter found out she had stage IV breast cancer 4 years ago. So for the last 4 years we have gone to pigeon forge or Gatlinburg. While there we can forget all our problems and worries and have fun shopping, site seeing or going to shows. For one week each fall my daughter who is 41 can escape the reality of her cancer and enjoy life. We love the Smoky Mountains and are accumulating many fond memories.

My daughter found out she had stage IV breast cancer 4 years ago. So for the last 4 years we have gone to pigeon forge or Gatlinburg. While there we can forget all our problems and worries and have fun shopping, site seeing or going to shows. For one week each fall my daughter who is 41 can escape the reality of her cancer and enjoy life. We love the Smoky Mountains and are accumulating many fond memories.

Gatlinburg has and will forever be my favorite place in the world and the place I call my second home. In fact, I can't wait to retire there. Gatlinburg is the place I wanted to get engaged at. I constantly talked about it. Little did I know, my best friend and now fiancé we're planning the perfect proposal. It was September 2016. We had already been on vacation for a couple days and I had lost my hope of him popping the question this trip. However, he took our son, best friend and I on a hike up to Clingman's Dome about an hour before sunset. Clingman's was somewhere I had on our list to see because of the breaktaking views I'd seen on the internet. We made the hike and my was it beautiful. We took pictures, read the informational signs and talked for a bit, next I know the sun is setting and I turned to him down on one knee asking for my hand in marriage. I said yes!

This past Sunday was my first hike in mts.. I've been missing out!! I was a cigarette smoker for over 20 years and now I'm a quitter! 7 weeks today. I tried to hike on spring break with many breathing issues. But after quitting i successfully hiked laurel falls trail with no problems, smokey mountains definitely inspired me to do some more hiking!! I'm blessed

In 1976, my mom, dad, grandmother and myself packed into a 1965 Ford Fairlane. I had no idea where or why we were going. We ended up in a place called Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. A small strip of pottery shops, breakfast dives and cheap motels, we were on what I learned was called a vacation. We rode around and looked at scenery, looking for bears and deer, everywhere I turned I saw a creek that seemed to be wherever I was. We ventured into a town called Gatlinburg, I don't remember much about it except all you did was walk and go into ( or want to go into ) a lot of cool shops. Thinking back, I can't remember if my grandfather came along on this first trip or not, but somewhere in the first few years he joined us as well. I remember all I wanted was to go to this wax museum that was located where Cooter's Place is now. Mom and Dad took me and the first wax figure I saw, I wanted to get out of there. I wanted out so bad, I cried. Those wax figures scared me. I remember we would take both sets of grandparents, with each alternating a year. There's the memory of my Nanny Muir standing in front of a stuffed bear smiling for the camera in Cherokee, NC. Maw Maw Gann hiking to Clingman's Dome and Laurel Falls, there were the trips where Mom's cousins would all go together and camp, we'd be in a hotel, but we all made it together to Silver Dollar City and its indoor roller coaster I loved to ride. The year my friend Robby Hawkins went with us and we camped where Ripley's Golf is at the entrance of Gatlinburg, Maw Maw was with us that year. Marv driving, mom in the passenger seat, Maw Maw and my sister Amanda in the back seat and me and Robby in those fold down seats in the back of a Ford panel station wagon. Robby and I would walk to Gatlinburg every night rapping the entire RUN DMC "Raisin' Hell" Album. Man what a walk, but we were a lot younger then. We took Dad's sister Cindy, my uncle Ronny and my cousins Stacey and Wesley one year. Almost got ate by a bear and we almost put Wes out of the truck to become some kind of wilderness child. Later that year we camped with about 30 other family members in Cherokee, all of mom's cousins and more were there. We awoke one morning, went over the mountain to Gatlinburg with it about 65 degrees, we started back and it was snowing like mad. We got to the campground and rounded up the others and went back to Newfound Gap for a huge snowball fight. That was one of the best trips I can remember. The next year I made my first trip without my parents, calling hotels on the phone and asking for prices ( man how times have changed) spent $19.99 a night. In 1993 I sat at a red light in Cherokee while it changed three time because it was the only place I could pick up the ending of the Alabama vs Tennessee game. From 1994 to 2000 I made several trips a year there, include one of the prettiest times I've been, there was a huge snowfall and we seemed to have the whole area of Cades Cove to ourselves. We explored every cabin and pull off in the cove. In 2003 I took my now wife for the first time, a spring trip that included her mother. Since that time, we've probably been 20 more times, each one an adventure all its own. From a winter trip with Mom and Dad and Amanda with Marv eating the biggest ice cream cone imaginable in 20 degree weather to an October trip with Julie's mom, that almost put me in the Tennessee Department of Corrections system. From a tornado that ripped through the cove, to an October 2009 wedding. I have stayed in hotels, cabins, campers and tents ( in the winter at 9 degrees) and have visited just about every attraction in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area. I've seen bears, skunks, deer, elk, snakes, coyotes and any other kind of animal that might roam those woods. There are so many more memories that I know I could write, but I'd need a publisher. I have so many stories to tell and just as many lost to age and time. The Smokies aren't just a vacation retreat, they are like home. Here's hoping for 40 more years of memories.

In 1976, my mom, dad, grandmother and myself packed into a 1965 Ford Fairlane. I had no idea where or why we were going. We ended up in a place called Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. A small strip of pottery shops, breakfast dives and cheap motels, we were on what I learned was called a vacation. We rode around and looked at scenery, looking for bears and deer, everywhere I turned I saw a creek that seemed to be wherever I was. We ventured into a town called Gatlinburg, I don't remember much about it except all you did was walk and go into ( or want to go into ) a lot of cool shops. Thinking back, I can't remember if my grandfather came along on this first trip or not, but somewhere in the first few years he joined us as well. I remember all I wanted was to go to this wax museum that was located where Cooter's Place is now. Mom and Dad took me and the first wax figure I saw, I wanted to get out of there. I wanted out so bad, I cried. Those wax figures scared me. I remember we would take both sets of grandparents, with each alternating a year. There's the memory of my Nanny Muir standing in front of a stuffed bear smiling for the camera in Cherokee, NC. Maw Maw Gann hiking to Clingman's Dome and Laurel Falls, there were the trips where Mom's cousins would all go together and camp, we'd be in a hotel, but we all made it together to Silver Dollar City and its indoor roller coaster I loved to ride. The year my friend Robby Hawkins went with us and we camped where Ripley's Golf is at the entrance of Gatlinburg, Maw Maw was with us that year. Marv driving, mom in the passenger seat, Maw Maw and my sister Amanda in the back seat and me and Robby in those fold down seats in the back of a Ford panel station wagon. Robby and I would walk to Gatlinburg every night rapping the entire RUN DMC "Raisin' Hell" Album. Man what a walk, but we were a lot younger then. We took Dad's sister Cindy, my uncle Ronny and my cousins Stacey and Wesley one year. Almost got ate by a bear and we almost put Wes out of the truck to become some kind of wilderness child. Later that year we camped with about 30 other family members in Cherokee, all of mom's cousins and more were there. We awoke one morning, went over the mountain to Gatlinburg with it about 65 degrees, we started back and it was snowing like mad. We got to the campground and rounded up the others and went back to Newfound Gap for a huge snowball fight. That was one of the best trips I can remember. The next year I made my first trip without my parents, calling hotels on the phone and asking for prices ( man how times have changed) spent $19.99 a night. In 1993 I sat at a red light in Cherokee while it changed three time because it was the only place I could pick up the ending of the Alabama vs Tennessee game. From 1994 to 2000 I made several trips a year there, include one of the prettiest times I've been, there was a huge snowfall and we seemed to have the whole area of Cades Cove to ourselves. We explored every cabin and pull off in the cove. In 2003 I took my now wife for the first time, a spring trip that included her mother. Since that time, we've probably been 20 more times, each one an adventure all its own. From a winter trip with Mom and Dad and Amanda with Marv eating the biggest ice cream cone imaginable in 20 degree weather to an October trip with Julie's mom, that almost put me in the Tennessee Department of Corrections system. From a tornado that ripped through the cove, to an October 2009 wedding. I have stayed in hotels, cabins, campers and tents ( in the winter at 9 degrees) and have visited just about every attraction in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area. I've seen bears, skunks, deer, elk, snakes, coyotes and any other kind of animal that might roam those woods. There are so many more memories that I know I could write, but I'd need a publisher. I have so many stories to tell and just as many lost to age and time. The Smokies aren't just a vacation retreat, they are like home. Here's hoping for 40 more years of memories.

As a child every year my parents took us to the Smokies. I can remember when there was no Dollywood it was Silver Dollar City that far back. My husband had never been to the mountains so when we got married 22 years ago this June we took our honeymoon at the Smoky Mountains. We were having so much fun I remember we woke up one morning and our car was missing. We called the police and just so happen we had parked down from our hotel and walked back to our hotel that night. So embarrassing but that shows you just how much fun we were having. We had our son in July 2002 and we wanted him to experience the greatness of the mountains. He feel in love with it as we have. I wanted him to have the same experience I did when I was a child. We have keep a tradition when we are able once a year we head to the Smoky Mountains.

I decided to go one winter, late January or early February, to check out the winter Christmas lights. While I was there staying I Gatlinburg it snowed. It was only about 1". But it was beautiful. I drove up into the mountains. Breathtaking. And it was so quiet. Loved it!!!

I like to visit the Tremont section of the Smokies because that is where my Grandmother is buried. We have a family cemetery there along with many memories. You go into the Smokies thru Townsend, Tn. in the direction of Cades Cove. Tremont is also called Walker's Valley. My mother was borned in Walker's Valley and lived there for approx. 6 years.

One summer, my husband and I and our 3 sons went hiking on one of the popular Smokies trails. The boys, ages 12, 9 and 8, were moving quickly several feet ahead of my husband and I when we heard crashing around in the bushes below the trail. My husband and I stopped instantly in our tracks and tried to identify the sound. We called to the boys to stop too. Just as they turned to face us, a small bear cub came exploding out of the bushes, scrambled up onto the trail and continued on up the mountain. All of us stood as still as statues, and the boys' eyes were as big as saucers! The same thing was on all our minds!!! Where was the cub's mother? Was she above us or below us? We were frozen for several long seconds, not wanting to get between a cub and its mother! When we realized she was not following the cub up the mountain, we quickly picked up our pace and made it to the end of the trail in record time!!