National Geographic Traveler puts Smokies in 'Places with Troubles' category

The Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 11/07/2009 | Scott Barker

[GoldStandard]

The Great Smoky Mountains aren't so great after all, according to National Geographic Traveler magazine.

The online version of the publication's sixth annual rating of 133 worldwide travel destinations characterized the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as "a national treasure surrounded by a bathtub ring of ugly, unplanned development."

[driftdiver]

planned development is ugly

[RetiredArmy]

Well, let me put it this way. Today is Saturday. On Wednesday my wife and I went to Gutenberg and Pigeon Forge. It was my first trip there in over 40 years. I was stunned. From the moment we got off the interstate at exit 407, until the time you get too the gate of the national park, it is wall to wall to wall restaurants, food joints, go cart tracks, money taking ventures. Shopping malls, discount stores. I counted FIFTEEN of those old style stores where you dress up as cowboys and such and have your photo taken. FIFTEEN of them. In Cody, WY, there was ONE! Unbelievable. Traffic was like trying to get out of town from a NFL, MLB or college football game. Six lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. The mountains were fantastic in fall color. But, the massive traffic jams, wall to wall people, made me make one quick decision: I will not go back. I go on vacation to relax, get away from people. If I want to be in that large a mess, I will go to an NFL game and mingle in the mob!!!

[RetiredArmy]

Spell checker here has gone Crazy!!! That is Gatlinberg, not Gutenberg. Don’t know how that happened. My bad.

[C210N]

National Geographic Traveler magazine.

A case of a magazine saying what they actually are in their title?

[Erik Latranyi]

Nothing more than environmentalists dissing prosperity.

[cripplecreek]

Try Michigan’s upper Penninsula if you seek wilderness that isn’t surrounded with tourist traps.

[animal172]

As one who lives very close to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge I can agree with most everything you say. It's a place I go only when forced. It's commercialism at it's very worst.

[Repeal The 17th]

The smokies...nobody goes there anymore...it’s too crowded...

[RetiredArmy]

We were stunned by all the commercialism. It was terrible. We actually left early. I got sick of taking 30 minutes to drive from Gatlinburg down into the Forge. Five miles taking that much time. There is not a foot of land that does not have some money taking little shop on it. Don't anyone whine out there about capitalism. This is beyond pale. This is one of those places where they simply throw up any type place just to get your money. You cannot relax and get away from it. Basically, in my years on this planet, this was the worse I have ever seen.

[Thermalseeker]

There are much, much better ways to get to GSMNP than going through Gatlinberg/Pigeon Forge. My wife and I hike over that way frequently and we avoid the G’burg/Pigeon Forge area like the plague. If you want a nice drive in the mountains that is free of all commercial activity, try the Cherohala Skyway between Tellico Plains, TN, and Robinsville, NC. This drive is mostly in the higher elevations, so you have to go earlier to see the leaves. Usually, by the first of October the leaves are gone up there and sometimes you will encounter some snow along the sides of the road. On a clear day the views from up that way are spectacular.

[MBB1984]

I can not disagree with the article. However, that should not disparage the Park. The Park is a magnificent treasure that should be experienced back country instead of a mere drive through. If the writer were to backpack, hike or trout fish in the Park instead of focusing on tourist traps, he or she would have a different perspective.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The online version of the publication's sixth annual rating of 133 worldwide travel destinations characterized the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as "a national treasure surrounded by a bathtub ring of ugly, unplanned development."

A very succinct description.

When I was a kid back in the 80s, we'd occasionally drive down to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg for the weekend. Back then, they were two rather small towns with a few tourist traps, hotels, and restaurants. Now, driving through them, you might as well be driving through any overcrowded, congested city strip.

[RegulatorCountry]

The town of Cherokee, on the reservation of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, is the eastern gateway to the Great Smokies. It’s been one of the more gloriously gaudy tourist traps you’ll ever encounter, for as long as anyone I know can remember, back to the thirties at least. Antique motor courts with teepees instead of cabins, you name it, if it’s touristy, it’s in Cherokee.

Sounds like Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge have finally and completely caught up, on the TN side.

If people didn’t want it, it wouldn’t be there. The park is the park; it’s gigantic, and it’s relatively unmolested. Private lands are private lands, on or off a reservation. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. Put up or shut up. Buy it and conserve it, if your conscience or your aesthetic sensibilities are offended.

[Thermalseeker]

If the writer were to backpack, hike or trout fish in the Park instead of focusing on tourist traps, he or she would have a different perspective.

Exactly. I would agree that all the commercial BS in Pigeon Forge is a blight, but it isn't part of the GSMNP. The author should take a hike up to Mt. Leconte or hike to Gregory Bald in late June when the flame azaleas are in full bloom.

[AnAmericanMother]

The problem was, you went through Pigeon Forge and G'burg.

Those places have been a blot on the landscape for YEARS. Pigeon Forge really started getting tacky after Dolly Parton opened her theme park there, but even when I was a teenager it was tacky. And the road on the other side of Pigeon Forge narrows suddenly, backing up the traffic.

There are many other routes into the park. Just avoid going in from the north.

[Jim Noble]

I was last in Gatlinberg in 1972. It was a dump then.

The other side wasn't so bad. How are things in NC these days?

[AnAmericanMother]

For some reason, I've never minded Cherokee. It's tacky, but it's gloriously tacky. And they do have an excellent craft museum/store with some really good quality work.

Only go through Pigeon Forge and G'burg for the BSA Winterfest.

[rabidralph]

People need to make a living somehow, I guess.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

We went by there about a year ago. We had exactly the same reaction. My wife and I will never go back there.