Visiting Gatlinburg
Visiting Gatlinburg for me was definitely an interesting experience. First off, I didn’t even know this place existed until the day before I arrived! Second off, when I did hear of it I figured it was no more than a small town where you tank up on gas and continue on your way. The second I entered the city I was surprised by how many people were packing the streets and all the things there were to do. My friend and I parked along the main street and joined the tourists to see what Gatlinburg had to offer.
There were a ton of restaurants, unique shops, and country bands playing live music. When we were out wandering around we got hit by a major thunderstorm and were forced to take refuge in some of the random stores. We ended up having dinner in a restaurant that was on the second floor of an outdoor mall. By the time we were done the rain had gone away and people returned, including this live band below.
The problem with my trip here to Gatlinburg was that it was unplanned, so with our focus in the national parks we weren’t able to spend as much time here as we would have liked. It’s definitely a fun city with a lot of quirky attractions. Since it’s located right outside of the Smoky mountains, you can visit the woods during the day then spend your evenings in the city. These two photos above and below showed some of the weird interactive games you can play along the streets, kind of giving the entire city an amusement park feel to it.
One of the most interesting places to me was the moonshine bars in Gatlinburg. Now of course this isn’t the illegal real moonshine, but rather a much less potent version of it. The great thing about these bars is there are plenty of free samples go to around. You could almost definitely get tipsy just by trying the shots they offer. Moonshine is known in the southeastern United States for its extremely high alcohol content. Because it is illegal, many people would make it at night to try to avoid authorities. Often times they’d simply use the moonlight which is how it got its name. I always assumed moonshine to be straight liquor, but the variations in Gatlinburg came in all different flavors such as blackberry, apple, and more.
