Outdoor Activities

During your cabin stay in the Smoky Mountains, your time is precious, so here’s a guide to some of the best quick and super-easy ways to venture outdoors into nature and the mountains. Even though the cabin life is great to hang out in, if you want to get out, here’s how to take an hour or two for short excursions that create family memories forever.

Foothills Parkway is a national parkway that flanks Great Smoky Mountains National Park and offers superb panoramic views of the Smoky Mountains. One of the best and most recent scenic drives to appear in the Smoky Mountains is the formerly “missing link” of the Foothills Parkway that was opened in 2018. This stretch runs from Walland to Wears Valley, and offers views during spring of the wildflowers and during fall of the leaves turning color that are outstanding.

Have you tried ziplining yet? Maybe it’s time, next time you’re in the area. Soaring downhill above the treetops and through the beautiful Smoky Mountain scenery – it’s so safe a child of 3 can do it, and so exhilarating that even those with a fear of heights can relax and enjoy it.

The Smoky Mountains boasts some of the longest and best zip lines in the world. Our friends at Legacy Mountain Ziplines have more than 400 acres of stunning scenery to play around in, as well as 4.5 miles of travel in 7 different zip lines – one of them is 2,500 feet long!

Ober Gatlinburg ski area, on Mt. Harrison above Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains, offers a fun Snow Tubing experience that’s fun for all the family, with no skills required except being able to sit on a tube – and maybe laugh – on the way down.

With snow tubing at Ober Gatlinburg you don’t even have to wait for the main slopes to open to get in on the fun. That’s because the resort always aims to open its snow tubing slope for Thanksgiving, and tries to keep it open until Easter.