Great Smokey Mountains Natl. Park / TN

[Curtis and Donna]

Doing some homework for our trip. Can anyone give me some advice on this park? We will be going to TN in early Oct. Looks to have 10 campgrounds and 500k acres at varing elevations, WOW. We like the wilderness of this park and the abundant wildlife.

If you have been there which campground did you like best? We have a 32 ft. 5ver with 2 slides opposite sides.

Thanks,
Curtis

[Superslif]

Earlier in the year I was trying to put together a 2 week stay in that area. At some of those 10 parks inside of the NP. you have to be careful which site you get.

Reserve America does a good job in their site description which some even have a picture of the site. You will find many sites that say "not level", tent only....And its going to be the start of the leaf peepers season....

My game plan was to do 4-5 nights say at Elkmont on the Northern side. Then go to a private park outside the NP to recharge my batteries, then swing around to the Southern side for another few days...

So I was trying to reserve sites the 6 months ahead as Reserve America will let you at 10am (6 months out), but every time I called by 10:05am the sites were filled ????I was looking for sites that had shade and could fit a 25' tt.

After about a month of trying a gave up.

[RVThere]

We stayed in the Townsend, TN KOA which was nice a quiet and drove our toad into the park or back to Gatlinburg.

Make sure you visit the Cades Cove section of the park!

[Tha_Rooster]

I stay in pigeon forge, in October you need to make reservations soon.

[JohnJoanW]

You would need to use recreation.gov. Cades Cove, Elkmont, and Smokemont would be able to accommodate you. Remember, no hookups or showers. Smokemont and Cades Cove have dump stations on site. For Elkmont, you need to go to Sugarlands Visitor Center.