On to Gatlinburg and ghost towns and like I mentioned in the first part of my Tennessee road trip post, the Smoky Mountains weren’t quite what I had in mind. Well, Gatlinburg wasn’t, I’m sure the rest of the National Park is all untouched wilderness and natural beauty. But not this town, oh no! I hardly took any photos there, because it’s just not very photogenic. So here are a couple of screenshots from Snapchat…
Clockwise from top left; warming up inside Ober Gatlinburg after standing at the ski sidelines for a couple of hours, with our mountain coaster tickets, the fake snow ski slope, riding the Ski Mountain Coaster, familiar names en route, Steak ‘n Shake, driving into Gatlinburg.
I really don’t know how to describe Gatlinburg, my boyfriend says it’s, “lame, obnoxious and fake”.
There’s no doubt it’s tack-tastic, that’s undeniable. But it’s really weird too, pure commercialism, yet everything shuts down early. We couldn’t find anywhere decent to have a drink or late bite around 10.30pm…on a weekend! Odd place, two nights was more than enough. The fact that there’s an artificial snow slope at the “ski resort” Ober Gatlinburg is quite cool in a unique ‘we’re in the mountains but it’s not cold’ kind of way. Otherwise, I think I’d prefer to carry on to Cosby and stay in an Airbnb like this one (but it was unsurprisingly sold out that weekend, very popular and only $90 a night. Get $35 off your first booking with this link). Obsessed with this black cabin and it’s yellow door, outdoor bath tub and campfire…
We did find a hole-in-the-wall type Mexican restaurant though (thanks to Ricky’s Yelp obsession! Check the listing here). Estrella Hondumex is inside a convenience store and even has a little bar where we ordered a couple of beers and got stuck into the best chips and salsa I’ve ever had (plus not one, but two refills!). The tacos were better than the mains, so I recommend trying a few of those instead. The family run establishment was hurt badly by the recent Gatlinburg wildfires, so if you’re in the area, go support them, avoiding the flashy phony chain restaurants on the main strip.
Gatlinburg has a Ripley’s Haunted House, but I was much more interested in getting out of there and seeing a real ghost town. This one was abandoned some time in 1900s, but was a bit too preserved for my liking (there was a car park and public toilets!).
Next time, we’ll keep it a little bit closer to nature. Closer to some of these spots we stopped at on the drive out…
Come back for a look inside a ‘tiny home’ in my next post.
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