Amenities

The House

The Cabin on the Creek is a wonderful mountain experience with all the comforts of home. The Cabin overlooks LeConte Creek, a rushing and gurgling stream which begins at the top of Mt. LeConte (known as Walasiyi to the Cherokee people) and marks the boundary with the Park. The sounds of the creek make it seem as if it is raining all night.

The Property

Bordered on two sides by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Cabin has a large side yard occasionally visited by deer and bears. It's only a mile from downtown Gatlinburg but it is an oasis of peace and tranquility. The Cabin is easily accessible by car, even in winter, and very difficult to leave.

What one might do near the cabin:

Just out the back door, a trail leads up into LeConte Creek valley. At a fork two or three minutes above the Cabin, you can take the left-hand trail and go as far as you want along the creek, finally getting to the trail for the Noah Bud Ogle restored house and remnants of a tub mill (about two miles from Cabin to homestead). At that same fork, you can take the righthand trail, called the Grassy Branch Trail, up the Grassy Branch valley and connecting with the horse trail along Two Mile Branch (which starts near the Sugarland Visitor Center and connects with the Sugarland Road near Cherokee Orchard.)

The Noah Bud Ogle place, earlier called Junglebrook, is also accessible by Cherokee Orchard Road, the road across the creek from the Cabin. 

At Cherokee Orchard, various trails start, most of which go up Mt. LeConte: Rainbow Falls trail to Rainbow Falls first, a lovely falls high up the mountain where LeConte Creek drops precipitously from a high ledge.  Bullhead Trail and Trillium Gap Trail (which has a small falls on it, Grotto Falls, where Roaring Fork tumbles over rock).

From Cherokee Orchard, you can take a lovely one lane, one way, road called the Motor Nature Trail. You can park about two miles along it, if you get an early enough start, and hike about 40 minutes to Grotto Falls.  On the Motor Nature Trail are various restored houses. The Motor Nature Trail enters Gatlinburg, where Ely’s Mill is worth a stop.

Just above Gatlinburg, about two miles from the city line, is the Sugarlands Visitor Center. You can buy a parking pass there, either outside at a kiosk or inside. There is a lovely museum there where they used to show a wonderful free 25 minute video about the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We have purchased that DVD and you can watch it on the player at the cabin. There is a gift shop there with books and products celebrating the Smokies.

If you keep going up 441 past the Sugarlands Visitor Center, you pass various trails you can explore, the Chimneys Picnic Area (the best in the area, we think), the Chimneys Trail (about two miles of strenuous climbing up to a great view) and the Road Prong Trail (which connects to Indian Gap, an original path Native Americans used for thousands of years to cross these mountains). A popular way up Mt. LeConte is the Alum Cave Trail, also off 441. Alum Cave Bluffs lie about 2 miles up the trail, with beautiful views on clear days along the way, sometimes including peregrine falcons, which nest on a nearby ridge. June can have spectacular wildflowers near the Bluffs.

At Newfound Gap, you can take the Appalachian Trail however far you want.  Going out to The Jumpoff or Charlies Bunion can have spectacular views.

From Newfound Gap, you can go to the parking lot for Clingmans Dome, a short intense hike to an observation tower, at the top of the second highest peak, east of the Rockies.

From Newfound Gap, you can proceed to Cherokee. We recommend the Museum and the Occonaluftee Living Indian Village.

Cades Cove is a beautiful valley you can access by proceeding from the Sugarlands Visitor Center down 321 for about 31 miles.  It has a one-way loop road going around it, from which you can hike to Abram’s Falls and/or visit the working grist mill and restored buildings.

In the Spring, exploring the Greenbrier Valley is a must, going past the restored barn and house up Porters Flat to crossing the footbridge and entering a wonderland of wildflowers. The Chimneys Picnic Area has a beautiful nature trail for spring wildflowers, as does the Chestnut Ridge Trail from the Townsend “Y”, on the way to Cades Cove.