Beautiful Smoky Mountains Scenic Drives: Cades Cove
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is full of beautiful scenic drives and Cades Cove is one you shouldn’t miss. This 11-mile, one-way drive is full of sweeping landscapes, animal sightings, and lots of history. We couldn’t believe how many bears we saw in just 3 hours.
From Gatlinburg to Cades Cove
We stayed in Gatlinburg during this visit to the Smokies. Soon after a filling breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake house, we made our way to the start of the Cades Cove Scenic Loop. It took roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes to make the drive from Gatlinburg to the start of the 11-mile loop drive, and there was plenty to see along the way.
Your first shop might be taking a photo of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park visitor sign. You’ll find this pullout stop near the North Entrance Turnaround on a map. After snapping your photos of the sign you should visit the Sugarlands Visitor Center. You can purchase your parking pass, get a souvenir (we love to grab an ornament), get your National Parks Passport stamped (free!), grab a map, and more.
Did You Know
Great Smoky Mountain National Park is free to enter, however, if you plan on parking longer than 15 minutes in any given destination within the park you need to purchase a parking pass. As of Spring 2024, passes are just $5 per car for the day to $15 for a week.
Some of the other popular destinations you’ll drive by and could stop at along the way: Cataract Falls, Laurel Falls, Metcalf Bottoms, The Sinks. You’ll even drive through a fun little tunnel called Bote Mountain Tunnel about 2/3 of the way there.
Cades Cove: What To Know Before You Go
- Location: Cades Cove Loop Rd, Townsend, TN 37882
- Hours: 8 am to sunset
- Fee: Park entrance is free, you must purchase a parking pass if you plan to park 15 mins or longer
- Peak Season: Summer and Fall
mORE DETAILS
- Allow 2-4 hours to drive the entire one-way loop, add time for stops and hikes you may add.
- Wednesdays are vehicle free along the loop from May through September.
- Multiple pullouts along the drive, please pull off the road when you need to stop to not block traffic.
- If you don’t want to drive the full 11 miles, you can take one of two shortcuts along the Cades Cove Scenic Loop. Keep an eye out for Sparks Lane and Hyatt Lane. Both are two-lane roads that sometimes have people walking on them. Sparks Lane is 1-mile into the 11-mile drive and Hyatt Lane is 3 miles into the drive.
Cades cove riding stables
One of the first animal sightings were these beautiful horses found on the Cade Cove Riding Stables. Just a short time after you pass the Cades Cove Information Kiosk you’ll probably see the horses hanging out right along the fence with some small pull outs for you to park. You can pet the horses at your own risk, we mostly just looked at them and took photos. I did talk sweetly to them and asked if I could pet them and a few allowed me to.
This was an exciting introduction to this scenic loop, we already saw a bunch of beautiful horses!
Bears and google street view
We continued our drive oohing and ahhing at the beautiful scenes before us and noticed a crowd. This has to be bears we thought, why else would people be this excited? To our delight, it was a momma bear and her 3 little cubs eating and playing in the tall grass. We stayed for a while and couldn’t see them clearly, but it was really exciting to see them! I feel a little less afraid of them now, but I still wouldn’t want to run into one in the woods.
SMOKY MOUNTAINS AND BEARS
Being the largest protected area in the eastern United States where bears can live in the wild, it is estimated that there are roughly 1900 black bears living in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. With that many bears, your odds of seeing them at least once are pretty high. Cades Cove is one of the most bear-filled Smoky Mountains Scenic Drives in the park.
Google Street View
As we were staring at the field trying to see the bear family, I hear “smile for Google Street View”. To our surprise, the Google Street View car was driving through as we were all looking at the bears. Once I returned home, I looked at the map and it looks like the last update was in 2016. I’m excited to look it up someday and maybe see myself on Google Maps!
Sometimes bears just showed up in random fields as we drove by. This cutie was just hanging out by itself as we drove by. We had driven our own car and as we slowed to a stop I stood up and took some photos out of the sunroof as there weren’t any pullouts in this area.
A lot of the drive is through wooded forest similar to the photos above. If you’re lucky, there won’t be any cars in front of you, but being one of the most popular drives in the park, you should anticipate lots of traffic at any given time.
Need breakfast before leaving Gatlinburg? Here are three pancake restaurants you need to try while in town.
So many animals to see
While we saw a lot of bears, we also saw a white-tailed deer, a wild turkey, horses, and smaller creatures like chipmunks.
Cades Cove: Things to Do
In addition to this being one of the most beautiful Smoky Mountains Scenic Drives, there are also lots of other things to do. Here are some things to do while driving through Cades Cove.
Cades Cove Visitor Center
5686 Cades Cove Loop Rd, Townsend, TN 37882
About halfway through the 11-mile loop you’ll find the Cades Cove Visitor Center. There is a small gift shop where you can buy some Cades Cove-specific souvenirs, a unique National Park Passport Stamp for your book, restrooms, and more.
Picnic
Pack it in, pack it out. Bring yourself a picnic of your favorite goodies but make sure to be cognizant of bears in the area. They will smell your food
See Wildlife
You will more than likely see black bears, a white-tailed deer, turkey, and more elusive coyotes, groundhogs, and other small critters. Some have reported seeing elk, too.
Horseback Riding
Near the entrance of the park is Cades Cove Stables where you can take guided horseback rides and more.
Camping
Cades Cove Campground is open year-round. Its a combined feeling of primitive camping with some modern conveniences of flushing toilets and drinking water. Learn more.
Hiking
Abrams Falls, Cades Cove Nature Trail, Rich Mountain Loop, John Oliver Cabin Access Trailhead, Cooper Road Trail, Wet Bottom Trail, to name a few.
Photography
There are endless photo opportunities in this stretch of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I would suggest bringing a long telephoto lens and tripod if you are able so you can get amazing animal photos from a safe distance.
Visit Historic Sites
There are many historic sites throughout this loop drive. From cabins to mills and churches, you’ll have plenty of history to explore. A few to find: John Oliver Cabin Grist Mil, The Tipton Place, Henry Whitehead Place, The Elijah Oliver Place, The Dan Lawson Place, The Tipton Place, The Carter Shields Cabin, The Becky Cable House, The Primitive Baptist Church, and more.
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