The family and I are spending next week in the Pigeon Forge/Gat’burg area in the Smoky Mountains. I know there are hundreds miles of trails (including that little thing called the Appalachian Trail), but does anyone know of good run loops that the rest of the family can hang around and wait for me to finish?
There’s a site called Cade’s Cove not too far from the Gatlinberg gate to the smokies. It’s an old farming settlement in a valley with plenty of greenspace and likely trails to run. There’s an 11 mile loop around the site, might make for a nice long run.
Thanks Sphere…that was one of the places we were looking to visit. Now, we will take along our running shoes.
Definately would recommend cade’s cove - go early though - some points of the loop are pretty narrow and will be a pain to share with lots of cars.
I’d also suggest some trail/cc type shoes for that run.
Cades cove is an excellent running place. A few hills and awesome scenery. Take your own water though, not many stops. Another place is in Townsend. They have a paved bike/walk trail along the road. It’s probably a good 4-6 miles long one way.
As a word of warning, while Cades Cove doesn’t seem like it’ll be far from Gatlinburg, the road is very curvy & very slow. You really should go there, but don’t expect a quick 15m drive to get there. The road is closed to cars on Wed & Sat morning until 12 so hit it then if you plan on running or riding there. You will choke on exhaust otherwise. People have no problems with doing 5-10mph the entire way around the loop and stopping in the middle of the road to look at deer, so things can really back up.
Another road that’s very close to gatlinburg is the roaring fork motor trail. It’s a one way paved road and tends to get little use, especially when compared to cades cove.
Many of the trails are good options for running. While there are many rugged trails through the park, many of time are very wide and very well graded. Abrams Falls trail is like that, if I recall correctly. It’s at the far end of Cades Cove if you find yourself that way and don’t want to run on the road. Parson’s Branch road is there as well. It’s a dirt road and currently closed to cars pending flood repairs from 2004. Stop by the Sugarlands VC and they can tell you which trails are big and wide and suitable for running. It seems like if they say by a creek they’re pretty easy trails. It’s the ones that go up the ridges that you have to watch out for.
Let me know if you get to the NC side of the park. I spend much more time on that side and run a number of the trails there. I don’t bother with trail running shoes, either.
There’s a trail along a stream that starts when you enter the national park from Gatlinburg. You can get about a five mile run out and back on that trail if you start in Gatlinburg. There’s probably more trails connecting to that one or you can just run further up the main road if you want more miles.
You can get on the Appalachian trail where the main park road intersects with the road to Clingman’s Dome and run the trail up to Clingman’s Dome where your family can meet you.
If you’re an experienced trail runner, I don’t think you can beat the trail to the top of Mt. LeConte. It’s a very challenging trail and could be icy this time of year, but the views can’t be beat.
Enjoy!
Yeah the path in Townsend is pretty nice - if you head off the path a bit on a road by the vistors center in townsend you can get some good hill work 
I rented a cabin in Townsend last spring and got some of the best hill running I’ve ever gotten. I should have brought my bike