Cades Cove Of all the things to do and see in the park, we felt the Cades Cove experience was by far the best. It passes the original home sites of settlers who moved into this area in the 1800's. Today the home sites are owned, preserved and manned by National Park Service employees dressed in period cloths and ready to explain and demonstrate how early pioneers lived. Visit a blacksmith shop, water powered grist mill, typical frontier home, and a church and graveyard. Check the dates on the grave stones and calculate the lifespan.
Local concessionaire provides excellent service.
The campground is typical of the National Park Service - level, shaded sites but no hook ups. There are restrooms with flush toilets. We soon discovered that if we just moved 90 degrees to the path of the bear and left them alone - they would extend the same courtesy to us. A group of 3-8 skunks would travel from campsite to campsite trying to find dropped food scrap. The first couple of times we quickly moved out of the way.