Great Smoky Mountains National Park guide · 1 min read
Cades Cove Loop: Churches, Cabins and Gristmill
The Cades Cove Loop Road is an 11-mile one-way route that circles a cleared valley ringed by the mountains of the Smokies.
It is the most visited destination in the park, and it holds a wider variety of historic buildings than any other area here. You can travel the loop by car, by bicycle or on horseback, setting your own pace as a self-guided tour.
Before you start, pick up the self-guiding tour booklet at the entrance to the loop road. It explains the buildings you will pass and the families who lived among them. Cherokee people hunted in the cove for hundreds of years, though no major settlements have been found. The first Europeans arrived between 1818 and 1821, and by 1830 the population had already reached 271.
Scattered along the road are three churches, barns, log houses and many other restored eighteenth- and nineteenth-century structures. A short, level path of 0.3 miles round trip leads to the John Oliver Cabin and homesite, and it works for wheelchairs and strollers.
Roughly halfway around the loop, the Cades Cove Visitor Center has park staff, exhibits on Southern Mountain life and culture, a bookstore and restrooms. Right beside it, the Cable Mill Historic Area gathers buildings typical of a remote Appalachian community. Cable Mill is a working gristmill that offers demonstrations of corn meal milling, and the Becky Cable house stands nearby.
About a mile past the visitor center, the Cades Cove Nature Trail is an easy 2-mile round trip walk that suits families, with brochures explaining the area's cultural history. Throughout the drive, the open valley gives wide views of the surrounding peaks and good chances to watch for wildlife.
