We spent one day driving, exploring and touring around the Cades Cove. Cades Cove is a unique part of the Great Smoky Mountains that has a large number of homes from the 1800s preserved. The park has conveniently made a one-way loop for park visitors to drive around to visit these houses (and a few churches).
I will go into detail about the places to visit and things to do in Cades Cove, but first a few tips.
General Cades Cove Tips
Start early
The mountains surrounding the cove itself are beautiful first thing in the morning with the clouds and fog still hanging on the mountains. But the real reason to start early is, of course, traffic. The cove has a one way road so you can only go as fast as the car in front of you. This means that at certain key locations you will go very slowly and you will sometimes struggle to find a close parking spot.
There is only one restroom once you start the loop. Plan accordingly.
The only restroom is around mid-way through the loop. It is located at the visitor center – which is more of a gift shop – but is its own building with plenty of stalls. There is also a very large parking lot here, though interestingly no picnic tables.
Get out of the car
Plenty of people drive through the cove, look at the scenery but don’t necessarily stop and get a feel for the place. You can walk into almost all of the structures and you can’t really appreciate the cove’s history unless you get out of the car. That does not mean you have to get out at every parking lot, but make sure you get out at least a few key locations.
Plan for your day
We like history, old buildings and enjoy a good wander-about so we packed our picnic lunch and made a whole one day experience of Cades Cove. As people who break for historical markers, we stopped at all the buildings and several of the scenic pull offs. We walked out to all of the buildings and spent some time just looking at the view. If you are not interested in old buildings or scenic views, or have people with you who are not, you may not need to plan for a full day experience.
Check out the Great Smoky Mountain National Park’s website on Cades Cove for hours and trail information!
Splurge for the Guide Book
They’re only $1 and make everything so much more meaningful. We actually bought ours at a visitor center outside the park, but they are also available as you start the loop.
The entire park is free!
This isn’t so much a tip as just a comment. If you are like us and trying to figure out how much it costs to get into the park and where the pay stations are – look no further. The entirety of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free. The reason is because it was actually created as a park by the people who lived around it. The people who lived around the park raised money and bought the land that was created as a park. And one of the stipulations of them giving their money and creating this park was that it would be free for anyone who wanted to visit.
Want more history of the area before it became a park? Visit the Townsend Train Museum for a lot of great history. (It’s also free!)
Stops along the Cades Cove Loop
John Oliver Cabin
The first stop is the John Oliver Cabin. There are two different parking areas for this cabin, so if there are no spaces available in the first parking lot, there are some in the parking area down the road. But it is a little bit of a walk from the second parking area.
What struck me the most when we made it to this first cabin is how old the cabin feels, but also how interesting it is that you are able to walk all around inside! No roped off areas here!
Primitive Baptist Church
Down a gravel road to the left you find this very picturesque little church. The interior of the church is very dark, but notice the complete lack of decoration. This was not because they could not afford to adorn the inside of the church, but because they believed the focus should be on worship!
Methodist Church
Church number two was only a short distance down the main road. Also very unadorned but beautiful, this church was lighter and more airy on the inside.
Missionary Baptist Church
The third, and final, church in the cove is the Missionary Baptist Church. Also lighter on the inside, it has a different feel than the Primitive Baptist Church.
Quick Pull-Off For Cove Views
Not a historic site, but there is a pull-off where you can get some great views of the cove with the mountains in the background. This is where we found the worst traffic of the cove and wound up waiting in a long line before we were able to get up to the parking area. We expected to find it full and that the traffic jam was caused by people trying to get a parking spot. There were plenty of open parking spaces – the traffic jam was caused by people taking pictures out the car window! I recommend actually stopping. The cars move slow enough its easy to get back in line, but you get better pictures if you get out of the car!
Elijah Oliver Place
The next stop involves a half-mile walk each way to the Elijah Oliver Place. It was not a hike, just a walk, but be forewarned before you head out that its not just over the ridge. The Elijah Oliver Place has quite a few outbuildings in addition to a rather wonky house. To me the refrigerator was the most interesting part of this particular homestead. The cabins probably all had a spring house at one point, but this was the only one with the spring house still intact. Apparently things that needed to be kept cool were kept in the spring house because the cold water from the spring acted as a natural refrigerator.
Cable Mill Area
We got back into the car at the Elijah Oliver Place just as it started to pour so we drove on over to the Cable Mill Area, ran to the restroom in the rain and then proceeded to have our picnic in the car. There was no other choice. Finally it stopped raining and we left the safety of the car for the tiny visitor center / gift shop and the buildings of the Cable Mill Area.
As the name suggests, the largest and most imposing structure in the area is the mill itself. There was also a house, a barn and a corn crib as well as some smaller structures. It was very crowded but that was probably because the rain had just let up. As far as buildings goes, it was not the most interesting set of buildings on the loop.
Dan Lawson Place
Up until we made it to the Lawson place, we kept asking ourselves what was the set of buildings we could see way off in the distance. The Dan Lawson Place was my favorite of the cove. It had a gorgeous view of the cove and was a nice, compact set of buildings. It was also uncrowded because by the last few cabins people are tired of stopping – if you think you only want to stop at one or two cabins along the cove, make this one of them!
Tipton Place
The Tipton Place also had a nice view, but it required walking along the road to find it. The Tipton house is one of the larger houses in the cove (the park service tore down the newer and larger houses when it became a park).
Carter Shields Cabin
Last cabin! Not a particularly impressive cabin, except for in its small size. It’s hard to believe people used to live in single room dwellings that were so small!
Other stops
There are a couple other lookouts along the way. We saw a bear at one, but unfortunately I haven’t upgraded to that nice lens yet…so it just looks like a cat in all my pictures.
Don’t forget to slow down for wildlife! You never know what you are going to see!
People go to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains with different goals. Some want to see the beautiful backdrops of the mountains across the cove, others are looking for wildlife and some are looking for history. Whichever interests you is the best reason to be there. Just do your research before you go and know what you can expect to find and where you can expect to find it!
Cades Cove is a great one day trip in the Great Smoky Mountains. Especially if you are not into hiking this is a great way to spend a day. There are great views from the car and you can always choose to get out and visit a few of the stops based on what you are interested. However you do it, don’t forget your cameras and to slow down for the amazing views!
What to read next:
How to spend one day in the Everglades National Park
Road Trip Through The Florida Keys
