One of the highlights for my kids was seeing all of the old style candy shops that they have there. There were multiple shops that were making taffy on machines that were much older than any one of us. All of them were set up in the front shop windows, making taffy, usually with a friendly store employee near by encouraging customers to come in with free samples of the taffy. While we did not see any bears along main street when we were there, there is no shortage of videos showing them casually strolling through downtown.

In search of seeing more black bears in the wild, we went further into the National Park. Fun fact, Great Smoky Mountain National Park does not charge any entrance fee and believes that everyone should be able to experience it for free. Now they do sell a parking pass if you plan to be parked in any one specific park in the place for more than 15 minutes, but even that was pretty cheap – I want to say it was only like $5. We were told to head up to an area called Cades Cove to see bears, and we did just that. The drive up there was gorgeous. Once there, we saw numerous signs showing that the trails that break off from Cades Cove were closed due to high bear activity. Unfortunately we did not see any bears in this area when we were there though. We went earlier in the morning which is generally a good time, but evening may be slightly better. 

We then went and drove the Tail of the Dragon, which is an incredibly windy road. In 11 miles, it has 318 curves. I would not recommend sitting in the back seat for this trek, particularly if you get car sick. The is estimated to attract 250,000 motorcyclists annually as they enjoy driving the road. We were there during a VW rally, which was a unique experience in itself.

Whether you want great views, food, shopping, hiking, or relaxing, the Great Smoky’s have something for everyone, and I would highly recommend visiting.