The park has 800 miles of maintained hiking trails to explore. The Appalachian Trail offers a popular eight-mile day hike to Charlie's Bunion. Many trails lead to waterfalls or old-growth forests. Beard Cane Trail in Cades Cove is a fairly flat trail that makes for an easy hike amid wildflowers under a tall tree canopy. Hikers can find trails ranging from just a mile round trip to multi-day excursions that cover hundreds of miles.
Four locations offer guided horseback riding tours in the park: Cades Cove, near Townsend, Tennessee; Smokemont, near Cherokee, North Carolina; and Smoky Mountain and Sugarlands, both located near Gatlinburg. Tours are available between mid-March and the end of November. Horseback tours are offered in lengths between 45 minutes and several hours. Rates range between $20 and $25 an hour.
Families can take a hayride around the Cades Cove loop road. The ride is between 1.5 and two hours long and starts at Cades Cove Riding Stables. Horse-drawn carriage rides, 20 to 30 minutes long, are offered at two of the stables in the park -- Cades Cove and Smokemont.
Visitors who want to fish must obtain a fishing permit from either Tennessee or North Carolina before throwing their rods into one of the more than 2,000 miles of streams within the park. Fishing is allowed from 30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset throughout the year. Streams are near their capacity of fish year-round. Brook, rainbow, and brown trout, as well as smallmouth bass, must be at least 7 inches long. There is no minimum size for rock bass.
Several areas throughout the park are designated as picnic areas, including Big Creek, Cosby and Greenbrier. Picnic areas are easily spotted as they're all equipped with a picnic table and a raised grill for cooking. Many of the locations offer pavilions that can be rented for $20 per use. It is illegal to feed the bears and other wildlife or to leave garbage and food behind when you leave the picnic area.
The University of Tennessee's Smoky Mountain Field School offers a variety of family workshops and guided tours year-round. Workshops, many of which are held on the weekends, cover the wildlife and flora of the Smokies and Cherokee history. Workshops range from four hours to two days long. Family workshops have included expeditions to find tadpoles and polliwogs, waterfall learning adventures, stream wading for salamanders, and expeditions to find wildflowers throughout the park. Storytelling sessions and educational courses that cover how to properly take care of nature have been popular.
