Time of year for Gatlinburg?

[2008Wildcat]

We are planning on heading to Gatlinburg next year. Our time frame would be from mid-June until late August, as we still have 1 in high school.

Is there a better time of year to visit the area, or for our time frame, would it be all the same?

Anyone there over the July 4th holiday? Do they do anything special (fireworks) for the 4th?

We are leaning towards the last week of June/1st week of July time frame, but unsure if it be more crowded than normal, or just average for the summer season...

[campinginthewoo]

Hi we stayed in PF at creeksidervpark.com and we were there over the forth of july we came in on a Tuesday and left the following wensday on the weekends the traffic is bumper to bumper but talking with the locals we learn the back roads to advoid the traffic and to use the trollies all over and even over to Gatlinburg. For the 4th in PF we just watched from the strip and could see everything and was back to creekside pretty quickly. Creekside is a good sam park and ran us 33 a night when we were there and also had we known the trollies dropped off out in front of Dollywood we would have used that to go. also if you go to Dollywood the locals said to go during the week it will be crowded but not as bad as the weekend and we went on a Thursday and didn't stand in long lines. Happy trails

[wbwood]

In my opinion, the best time to go is in the fall. But we know what you mean about kid still in school. We have the same issue.

[Halmfamily]

We visit during our kids spring break in March. Days are usually 60-70° and nights in 40-50° range. This makes for very comfortable sight seeing and hiking. We have also visited in November, just to play on the snow and in late July, wow was it hot. Best time to arrive is Sunday afternoon and leave on Friday. Weekends are a nightmare for traffic. If you go on the weekend and stay in Pigeon Forger or Seveirville use the Gatlinburg bypass if you plan to go into the forest. Most people don't know about it and it will save upwards of thirty minutes of sitting in Gatlinburg traffic. Have fun, its an awesome place to visit.

[Merrykalia]

2008Wildcat, if you will PM me and let me know where you are staying, I will give you some directions around all the traffic. Just depends on where you are going to stay, which way you should go.

[DutchmenSport]

"I have seen traffic so bad you have to wait in line to get off the interstate!"

That sounds like I-465 around Indianapolis every day between 4:30 and 5:00 pm! 🙂

[Skylark]

Live web cam. Sky

Gatlingburg web cam

[RoyB]

TNRIVERSIDE - Good point on my calling them BATHOUSEs... Their site map calls them RESTROOMS and I see around ten such buildings on the ELKMONT Camp map.

One trip we was within 30-40 feet of a RESTROOM BUILDING and I ran an 50-foot extension cord from the side door that had a large wash-up sink for cook ware. I covered up the extension cord with leaves that ran to my TENT site. Got away with it for about three days then there was a ranger guy standing there with my extension cord in his hands shaking his finger sideways at me hehe...

Roy Ken

[RoyB]

schlep1967 - We have gone to Gatlinburg in groups a few times with three or four family's and rented a big log cabin. Had plenty of room for all and when the cost gets divided up it works out rather well...

[schlep1967]

We are going for the first time in June. Two families traveling 8 hours one way makes it cheaper for us to rent a condo from Dollywood. In doing research for prices of cabins we found the rental prices TRIPLE starting June 28th for the 4th holiday. So you might want to inquire with the campgrounds about their prices on the dates you want to go. FYI 2 families totaling 7 people ariving 6/20 and leaving 6/28 staying in a condo with room enough for all of us and passes to Dollywood for the entire stay .... $1700. Just for me to pull my camper there and back would be around $500. Figure about the same for the other family. So that is $1000 before even looking at paying for campsites and park passes. Sometimes it is just cheaper to rent a place and drive the 40 mpg car down.

[DannyA]

Gatlinburg is always crowed but around the 4th its VERY bad.
My suggestion would be to get there a few days before the 4th to get settle in before most traffic arrives.
I have seen traffic so bad you have to wait in line to get off the interstate!

[TNRIVERSIDE]

'We also love the ELKMONT Camp inside the Natl Park.. ELKMONT does not have electric hookups but does have bathhouse with available fresh water you can tote to the trailer. "
The bathhouse only has bathrooms and limited electrical outlets. Don't confuse it his with a bathhouse that has showers.

[Merrykalia]

We are a couple hours from there, so we go quite often. It is normally crowded, no matter what time of year, but the summer months are pretty busy, as is the fall during "leafing season".

There are many, many camping choices to choose from and they cover about a 60 mile radius of Gatlinburg/PF. If you want rustic, Elkmont is the place to stay, but it is dry camping and usually can be very humid and hot. In town, there are so many campgrounds to choose from, most with FHU. If the campground is in town, the trolley stops there, so that shouldn't be a contributing factor of staying there.

Our favorite is Pine Mountain RV Park for it's convenient location, FHUs, 3 pools and hot tub (one of which is indoor) and great for the fall and winter months.

[RoyB]

We always go down in the late SEP early OCT time frame when the kids go back to school...

However Gatlinburg is always crowed on the weekend nights with groves of folks running up and down both sides of the main road...

We like to stay in the TOWNSEND area. TOWNSEND is more of the easy going side and has several nice camp grounds with hookups and creek side camp sites. Close enough to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge runs when you want to do that...

We also love the ELKMONT Camp inside the Natl Park.. ELKMONT does not have electric hookups but does have bathhouse with available fresh water you can tote to the trailer.

When we want to mix-in with the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge crowds we like to stay at RIVER EDGE RESORT which is just as you come into Pigeon Forge from the Gatlinburg side. A very nice campground with full hookups and a 5-star bath house...

Been going to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge areas both Tent-RV Trailer camping as well as Log Cabins since the early 70's. It is truly a magical place to visit for us.

Roy Ken

[TPUC]

They hold the first 4th of July parade in the country at 12:01 Am ON THE 4TH. It's gonna be really crowded that time of the year.