My family spent a week in Gatlinburg, TN and we ended up hitting most of the trails closest to town. If you missed it, here’s Part 1 of our trip.

Day 4, Wednesday

Old Sugarlands Trail (Running) – 7.7 miles

This trail is right across the street from the visitor’s center. Despite that I only saw 2 other people on my run with one of them being a park ranger.

First mile is relatively flat next to the stream.

The trail was more of a park road all the way up so I didn’t have to worry about tripping. This meant I could enjoy the scenery a bit more than other runs.

At the top, you had a choice to either get your feet wet (left) or take a narrow bridge (right). Personally, I don’t mind damp shoes.

Day 5, Thursday

Rainbow Falls Trail (Hiking) – 5.5 miles

Any trail name with the word “falls” in it is going to be crowded so you better arrive at or before 8am to get a choice parking spot.

There are several different trails that connect at this trailhead including Old Sugarlands that I ran the day before.

Me in front of Rainbow falls in the background. Tough to take a good picture in wet, rainy, humid conditions.

Trillium Gap Trail / Bull Head Trail (Running) – 6.7 miles

I started off on Trillium Gap Trail, which runs next to the Fork Motor Nature Trail.

This is a pretty technical trail with lots of roots and rocks to trip you up.

Little foggy which made for cool scenery to run through.

Whoa! I almost ran into a momma bear and her four cubs. I waited for them to exit the trail. And waited. And waited some more. Eventually, I realized I was just going to have to turn around and get my miles in elsewhere.

I headed over to Bull Head Trail where several teams of park employees were working on blowdowns.

Day 6, Friday

Little River Trail (Hiking) – 4.7 miles

We ended things with the easiest hike of the week.

You won’t find a less technical trail in the park.

Gorgeous views of the river on the very modest climb up.

Have I mentioned the gorgeous views yet?

Water was really moving down this mountain stream.

James Creek Trail / Meigs Mountain Trail (Running) – 6.3 miles

While I was running, my wife checked out Daisy Town at the trailhead which had a bunch of restored cabins.

James Creek Trail is a modest climb with plenty of room to spread out.

Another wooden bridge. This one seems to have been there for a while.

With a couple small stream crossings thrown in.

Love seeing a bunch of ferns next to trails.

What an amazing week of exploring the park. I ended up getting in better training than I was expecting. Each day I started out thinking I would run for about two hours and each day I decided to do a little less than that. Most of them were in the 80-90 minute range. I erred on the side of less mileage/time because I didn’t want to overdo things. This was supposed to be fun and I honestly can’t remember the last time I enjoyed running this much. Just a really, really cool week of running (and hiking).

If you’re planning a trip to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, I have two recommendations. The first is to get out early especially if you’re doing a popular trail. Being out in nature is enjoyable, but it’s a little less so when the trails are packed with people. My second piece of advise is to choose some less popular trails to explore. Don’t just google “best Great Smokey Mountain trails”. Grab a map and look for trails that are a little off the beaten path. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. I would rank the ones I ran in this order:

Bull Head Trail
Sugarland Mountain Trail
Old Sugarlands Trail
Husky Gap Trail
West Prong Trail
Meigs Mountain Trail

Now it’s time to go plan my next national park trip.

Chasing 10K