Quote:
Originally Posted by juan ruiz
It looks like Traffic in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg is very bad as everyone is recommending to stay away from those areas,
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It depends on which weekend it is. You do not want to be there when they are having their hotrod weekend if you plan to drive around the towns much.
There is a bypass that not everyone knows about between Pigeon Forge and G'burg that on most weekends will not be too busy. There are also parallel roads east of Pigeon Forge's main drag that can be useful. When I was a kid in the late 60's and early 70's, the Pigeon Forge strip was only maybe a mile long..... now it pretty much extends to Sevieresville (sp ?). My parents and my siblings vacationed there many years until I was and adult. I have been there many times since with my wife and kids. Sure it is touristy, but at the same time the Smoky Mountain National Park remains a beautiful place. Every time I go there it brings back childhood memories of cheap bow/arrow sets, pocket knives, waterslides, jumping rocks at Chimney Tops, pancakes at the Pancake Pantry etc.
The Pancake Pantry (in Gatlinburg) is still there, and the Chimney Tops area still looks like it did in pictures I have of me as a toddler and dad climbing over rocks in the late sixties.