Morton Overlook, Great Smoky Mountains National Park/Harold Jerrell

One visit to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is not enough, even if it stretches over a week or two. This Appalachian wonder holds many stories within its roughly 800 square miles that cover the Tennessee-North Carolina border like a rumpled blanket.

There are stories in the log cabins, plank churches, and architectural wonders that farmers built for their crops and livestock in Cades Cove and Cataloochee, stories of ridge runners and moonshiners in the mountains, Native American stories, and stories of nature.

Venture into this park draped over the ridgeline of the Appalachian Range and you’ll discover five different forest types; both grassy balds and heath balds that poke holes in the woods near the mountains’ summits; and vegetative tangles produced by the vigorous growth of catawba and rosebay rhododendrons, magnolia, ferns, holly, and mountain laurel abound.

There are even caves that worm into the karst formations underlying the Smokies’ extreme western portions. Spend time roaming from the park’s 870-feet-above-sea-level basement to its 6,643-foot-high Clingmans Dome and you will, in essence, have negotiated diverse vegetative topography akin to what you would find hiking the Appalachian Trail 2,181 miles, from Georgia to Maine.

Though the Smokies run only about 50 miles, within that stretch is the wildest terrain the Southern Appalachian region can claim, and some of the wildest to be found in the eastern United States. At their heart is the national park, which sprawls across 815 square miles, a swath of land just a little over half the size of Rhode Island – probably bigger than the state if you rolled the mountains flat -- on which nature has gone wild.

Unique architecture in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park/NPS

The Smokies were settled by whites in the 18th century, logged well into the 20th century, and have been flourishing almost as wilderness again since 1934 when this landscape was destined to become a national park. Despite the roughly 9 million visitors who traipse through the park each year, it continues to be a wellspring of biological diversity.

While Cades Cove with its 11-mile loop road and rich collection of homesteading cabins, corn cribs, smokehouses, and churches is arguably the most popular area of the park, much the same history can be discovered without the crowds in Cataloochee (Big and Little Cataloochee). A bit more than a century ago this was one of the region’s most thriving communities, counting 1,200 residents in 1910. Today, though, it draws no crowds to its historic buildings, rolling orchards, meadows or forests, which do, however, attract elk, wild turkeys, and black bear. 

Nestled near the park’s eastern border, you must negotiate a winding 11-mile gravel road found near Dellwood, North Carolina, to reach Cataloochee. Make the journey, though, and this road will carry you back into a 19th- and early-20th century landscape rimmed by 6,000-foot mountains and clutching some of the park’s best examples of historic frame buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Still standing is the Palmer House, a vintage “dog trot” construction featuring two separate log cabins (that later were planked over) tied together by a covered porch popular with dogs on long, hot summer days. These days the house doubles as a museum of the valley and offers a video that provides an interesting oral history provided by descendants of the valley’s settlers.

Elsewhere in the valley you can find the Palmer Chapel, the Caldwell House that is sandwiched by two covered porches, and the Beech Grove Schoolhouse, a two-room structure built in 1901. Come in the fall and you can enjoy this historic setting against the riot of fall colors in the hardwood forests and the eerie bugling of elk during their rut.

You could Immerse yourself in Native American and early settler history in Cherokee, North Carolina. First, stop in at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and visit the park's excellent Mountain Farm Museum, often the site of hands-on Junior Ranger programs and demonstrations and then walk the 1.5 mile Oconaluftee River Trail to view the wayside exhibits detailing local Cherokee and Native American history.

If you want a panoramic view of the Smokies, you could head to the top of the Clingmans Dome observation platform, or avoid the crowds with a hike to the fire towers atop Mt. Cammer or Mt. Sterling. Both are steep hikes (the 2 miles up to Mt. Sterling are rumored to be the steepest in the park), but the views from the crest of the Smokies are unparalleled.

Great Smoky's rumpled mountains provide great hiking and course with 2,100 miles of leaping streams popular with anglers and which, lower down where they spread out and flow more serenely, delight young and old alike seeking to escape the high heat and humidity of summer by taking a dip in a river.

Hike the Appalachian Trail through the park and spend a night at the Spence Field Shelter/Kurt Repanshek

With an estimated 900 miles of trails, Great Smoky is a backpacker's haven, one that could occupy you year-round. You could focus on the 70-some miles of the A.T. that runs along the roof of the park, or break Great Smoky into regions and hike them one at a time

You could plan your visit for spring, when wildflowers toss their bursts of color across the landscape, with displays of mountain laurel, rhododendron, flame azalea, and other heath family shrub flowers, especially on the higher elevation balds. Although there are many parks that are larger, Great Smoky Mountains National Park has the greatest diversity of plants anywhere in North America. The Smoky Mountains contain more than 300 rare species of plants, with as many as 125 on the protected plant lists of either North Carolina or Tennessee.

Or, come in the winter and day hike in the high country. The winter temperatures and weather confines the Smokies' notorious air pollution to the valleys, rewarding day hikers with the best views of the year. Try the Appalachian Trail at Newfound Gap for an easy wintertime stroll.

As you can see, Great Smoky holds more wonders and adventures than one visit can embrace.