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Cade's Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Canoeist on Fort Loudon Lake in Knox County
Catawba rhododendron on Roan Mountain's rocky top
Picture-perfect Greene County horse barn
Sparks Lane in Cade's Cove
Photos and story by Kendall Chiles
Calling east Tennessee God’s Country comes easily to me. I was born and raised here. And as our state anthem, “Rocky Top,” says, it will “always be home sweet home to me.”
East Tennessee has a nice balance of medium-size cities like Knoxville and Chattanooga and rural areas like Greene and Monroe counties. Even if you live in the metro areas, you’re never very far from small towns, farms and wilderness. The Southern Appalachians run the entire length of the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Most of these mountains are either in the Cherokee National Forest or Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Running between the mountains and central Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau to the west, the Tennessee Valley cradles beautiful farmland, rivers and lakes created by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dams that control flooding and provide power to the valley. All these waterways feed into the Tennessee River, which flows from the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers in Knoxville.
Greene County is the agricultural center of the upper Tennessee Valley. That’s where the valley is widest—and prettiest, I think. The state’s first settlers crossed the mountains from Virginia and North Carolina to build communities here in the 1760s and ’70s. Jonesborough, established in 1779, is the oldest town in Tennessee. To help preserve its authentic early American look and feel, Jonesborough’s residents campaigned to list the town on the National Register of Historic Places back in the late 1960s. It’s a wonderful little town to visit, especially in early October, when Jonesborough hosts the National Storytelling Festival.
If you like to shop for antiques and crafts, don’t miss Rogersville, a small town west of Kingsport. Its downtown district has many interesting shops in beautifully restored old buildings. And if you don’t feel like shopping, you can’t go wrong just aimlessly wandering the county’s scenic, winding back roads.
For uniquely lovely mountain scenery, head to the Roan Highlands on the Tennessee-North Carolina border east of Johnson City. Roan Mountain State Park boasts a number of natural treeless mountain summits, or balds. Round Bald, Jane’s Bald and Grassy Ridge make up the largest area of natural balds in the Southern Appalachians.
Large stands of catawba rhododendron and flame azalea grow wild on these rocky peaks, and in mid-June the park celebrates their blooming during its annual Rhododendron Festival. With mountaintops ablaze in the showy blooms and unmatched vistas of the Southern Appalachians, it’s a photographer’s dream.
Heading south into the central section of east Tennessee, you’ll find Knoxville, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a wonderland of TVA lakes. Six major lakes are within an hour’s drive of Knoxville. Cherokee, Douglas, Fort Loudon, Melton Hill, Norris and Watts Bar lakes are all very popular places for fishers and other water enthusiasts.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the crown jewel of east Tennessee, if not the entire state. Within a day’s drive of one-third of the country’s population, the park attracts more than 9 million visitors a year—at least twice as many
as America’s next-busiest national park. The Smokies offer an amazing variety of plant and animal life, with more than 100 native species of trees, 1,500 kinds of flowering plants, 200 species of birds and 60 species of mammals. The many creeks and rivers that flow from the mountains produce numerous waterfalls and excellent fly-fishing. More than 850 miles of hiking trails provide access to most of this wonderful diversity.
Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) offers exceptional views of the mountains as it crosses the Appalachian Trail at its namesake. The park has many preserved or restored barns, cabins and gristmills. You’ll find the highest concentration on 11-mile Cades Cove Loop Road. Cades Cove is also one of the best places in the park to see wildlife. Foggy mornings in Cades Cove can be magical, with the landscape taking on a more intimate feel.
After you’ve finished exploring the Smokies, head out through Townsend, just outside the park close to Cades Cove. Townsend, which is more of a community than a town, has managed to keep itself relatively quiet and undeveloped compared to the teeming gateway towns of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Heading south and west, you leave the mountains for the farmland and small towns of the lower Tennessee Valley.
If you have time, take scenic U.S. 11 instead of Interstate 75—especially if you enjoy stopping to sample the local flavor. I rarely pass up Tic-Toc Ice Cream Parlor in the quiet little town of Loudon. A few miles south of there, you’ll find Sweetwater Valley Farm, a family-owned dairy specializing in 25 varieties of fine farmstead cheese.
Historic Chattanooga, at the southern end of the valley, is one of my favorite cities. The downtown waterfront area underwent a significant and very successful facelift in the early 1990s, so you’ll find many delightful shops and restaurants. I also recommend the Tennessee Aquarium, which highlights the Tennessee River watershed all the way from the Smokies to the Gulf of Mexico. And the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park will fascinate Civil War buffs and casual visitors alike.
The best times to visit east Tennessee are mid-April through May and October through mid-November, when the temperatures are mild and the humidity low. And feel free to sing along with our God’s Country theme song, “Good ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top, Tennessee!”