🥾 ActiveDay trip · from Knoxville, TN

Great Smoky Mountains: Alum Cave & Laurel Falls

Great Smoky Mountains National Park begins 30 miles southeast of Knoxville — close enough for a full active day with time for two of the park's best trails. The Alum Cave Trail to Alum Cave Bluffs is the most geologically distinctive hike in the Smokies: a 4.4-mile round trip through old-growth forest, across a log bridge over Styx Branch, through a dramatic arch formation called Arch Rock, and out onto the open face of the bluffs themselves — a massive concave overhang of Anakeesta slate with sulfur-tinged seeps and views down the Little Pigeon River drainage. Laurel Falls in the afternoon is the most popular trail in the park for good reason: a paved 2.6-mile round trip through second-growth pine and laurel forest to the largest free-falling waterfall in Great Smoky Mountains NP. The Newfound Gap Road scenic drive back through the park closes a complete day in the Smokies.

Day 1 — Smokies: Alum Cave Bluffs trail, Laurel Falls, Newfound Gap Road scenic drive

Day 1 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park

🚗 1 hr 20 min driving📍 3 stops

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Morning

🚗

Drive

Knoxville, TN → Alum Cave Trailhead, GSMNP

35 min8:00 AM → 8:35 AM

Alum Cave Trail — Alum Cave Bluffs

★ 4.9

A 4.4-mile round-trip trail along Alum Cave Creek through old-growth hemlock and yellow birch, through Arch Rock — a narrow tunnel cut by the creek through Anakeesta slate — and out onto the dramatic concave face of Alum Cave Bluffs at 4,400 feet. The bluffs are not a cave but an overhanging cliff face with alum and sulfur seeps and an unobstructed view down the Little Pigeon River valley. One of the most geologically distinctive trails in the Smokies. Start early to avoid the midday crowds.

8:35 AM📍 See location

🍽️

Lunch

Laurel Falls Trail — Great Smoky Mountains NP

★ 4.6

A paved 2.6-mile round-trip trail through pine-oak forest to the largest free-falling waterfall in Great Smoky Mountains National Park — a two-tiered 80-foot drop over Anakeesta slate ledges on Laurel Branch. The most-visited trail in the park; arrive by late morning to find parking. The paved surface and steady grade make this the accessible face of the Smokies.

9:35 AM📍 See location

☀️

Afternoon

Newfound Gap Road — Chimney Tops Overlook

The 31-mile scenic drive through the park on US-441 from Gatlinburg to Cherokee — crossing the Appalachian Trail crest at Newfound Gap (5,046 feet) with views into both North Carolina and Tennessee, passing the Chimney Tops overlook, and descending through the hardwood forest of the Oconaluftee drainage. The road gains and loses 3,000 feet of elevation and passes through six distinct forest communities. Best in late afternoon when the valley light falls across the ridges.

12:00 PM📍 See location

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Evening

🚗

Drive

Great Smoky Mountains NP → Knoxville, TN

45 min5:00 PM → 5:45 PM

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