A Smoky Mountain Summer…

Summertime. A wonderful time for a visit the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee for a family vacation, a romantic get-a-way or for a church or social group meeting. The Smoky Mountains are a gorgeous backdrop upon which you can paint your own scenes of fun and connections for your own mental scrapbook. The mountains are painted a lush green with highlights on the hillsides and valleys of white and purple rhododendron, the flaming and pink azaleas, and the splotches of mountain laurel’s whites and pinks added to the landscape. Trees, flowering bushes, flowers and greenery escape burst free of winter’s grasp and explode into a painter’s palette of color.

The Smoky Mountain cities of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville have created endless opportunities for fun, play and enjoyment, with city-sponsored events like Smoky Mountain Tunes & Tales, Wilderness Wildlife Week and the 26th Annual Patriot Festival. OF course there are seemingly unlimited attractions and activities to engage in like Alpine Coasters, Horseback Rides, unique museums, balloon flights, fanciful and magical quests, go-kart tracks, mini-golf and all kinds of tests of skill and endurance. The National Park does its part for outdoor play with miles of trails for hiking and mountain streams flowing down the mountainside for endless chances to get wet, float, boat, tube or experience a whitewater adventure all against the beautiful backdrop of the Smoky Mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee provide countless shopping opportunities in unique shops, malls, villages and arts enclaves and Tanger Outlet Mall, all offing a huge supply of gifts and goodies. The Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community offers one-hundred artists and craft persons who live and work in the Community and create different and unique hand-made products to enhance your shopping experience and your home or business décor.

Shopping, hiking and playing builds-up a ferocious appetite which you can curb at an endless number of restaurants serving up all types of food, dining settings and price ranges. The Smokies are famous for barbecue and you can try various styles of barbecue seasoning and cooking from Memphis, St. Louis, Nashville and the Smokies own style.

And when the sun goes down there’s no going home as the theaters open their doors with top quality entertainment from Country to Soul, singing and dancing, magic and comedy, lumberjacks and prancing horses and dinner shows. Country Tonite hosts the Celebrity Series with one-night shows with stars like The Oak Ridge Boys to The Bellamy Brothers. The Hatfield & McCoy’s have added a water show to their nightly hijinks and Charlie Bob Smith highlights a morning show at the Smoky Mountain Opry.

So what is as majestic as the Great Smoky Mountains and as memorable as a first kiss? A Great Smoky Mountain experience, so come and enjoy what Mother Nature and man have created in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.