Buy the book or digital chapters at
lonelyplanet.com/usatrips
tIME
5 days
dIStANCE
180 miles
bESt tIME tO GO
Apr – Jun, Sep
& Oct
StARt
near bryson
City, NC
ENd
Knoxville, tN
AlSO GOOd fOR
The Great
Smokies
WHY GO The Cherokee Indians fell in
love with these ancient, mist-shrouded
mountains, which they named Shaconage
(Place of the Blue Smoke). Lose yourself
in their lush valleys and mossy, shaded
trails. But lest you overdose on trees,
there’s plenty of man-made fun (hello,
Dollywood!) on either side of the park.
The Great Smoky Mountains, a subrange of the Appalachians, straddle
the North Carolina–Tennessee border. On a map, the southwestern
corner of North Carolina looks like a lump of taffy being flattened by
the rollers of Tennessee and Georgia. This “tail” – geographically part
of the Tennessee Valley – is crisscrossed with thundering mountain
rivers, and dotted with lakes and hidden waterfalls.
The terrain, unsurprisingly, is fantastic for whitewater rafting, kayak-
ing and tubing. The q Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) launches
trips on the class II and III rapids of the Nantahala River from their
main outpost west of Bryson City. Ride a group raft or a two-person
ducky through the wide, brown river gorge, spinning through a diz-
zying whirlpool and splish-splashing over the Nantahala Falls. The
NOC also offers whitewater trips for all ages and skill levels on a
half-dozen other rivers in the Appalachians. Experienced paddlers can
brave the 9-mile trip down the roiling class IV-V Cheoah, launching
from nearby Robbinsville. After a long day on the river, put your sore
muscles to bed at the NOC’s w Nantahala Inn, a rustic, pine-paneled
motor lodge tucked into the trees.
Trips on the historic e Great Smoky Mountains Railroad depart
from Bryson City and plow through the dramatic Nantahala Gorge and
across the Fontana Trestle. The former Murphy Branch Line, built in the
late 1800s, brought unheard of luxuries like books, factory-spun cloth
and oil lamps to these mountains, making