Roaring Fork
Currently Open- Address: Rte. 441, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN 70068, Gatlinburg, United States Map
- Timings: 24-hrs Details
- Phone: +1-8654361200
- Time Required: 02:00 Hrs
- Tags: Outdoors, Trail, Family And Kids, Bird Watching

Drive the spectacular trail to Roaring Fork. The weather is perfect, the view remarkable, and be sure to keep your windows down. The colours of fall will be with you throughout the drive up Roaring Fork. A wilderness corridor lined by trees is charming. Enter a world of plunging waterfalls, red-leaved maple, and historic old cabins. Slip into low gear and glimpse bears and deer as you reach the summit. Explore the early days of Southern Appalachia. Barns and working tub mills have been conserved and reinstated to show you the past.
Follow an old-growth trail past the waterfalls and up to Noah “Bud” Ogle homestead. See how the first settlers lived here in this farm. It has handcrafted wooden flume plumbing system as well as working tub mills. Pull into Jim Bales place, the Ephraim place and the Alfred Reagan place. Score a jar of honey while you stay at one of the cabins which are available for rent. And do check out Ely’s Mill where you can grab a bite to eat.
Roaring Fork is a stream in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Once the site of a small Appalachian community, today the stream's area is home to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Like many mountain streams, Roaring Fork is volatile. The stream is a peaceful trickle on any given day, but becomes a raging white-water rapid after a mild rain shower. The "roar" of the water is amplified by its echo on surrounding mountain ridges. Along the trek, you can find numerous activities that will draw you from your car. Hiking trails can take you on foot into another time. Grotto Falls, one of three waterfall trails, sends hikers to Brushy Mountain and Mount Le Conte. The trail is lined with Eastern Hemlocks. Below these evergreens thrives an underscore of rhododendrons, azaleas and mountain laurels. An abundance of birds and wildlife greet you, as the river remains an unbroken buddy along your trip.
And a “wet weather” waterfall called Place of a Thousand Drips provides a superb ending to your expedition. This waterfall is dramatic. The flow of water is split into numerous small channels. The water then cascades around rocks and create a thousand drips.
Roaring Fork Travel Tips
- It’s best to drive during the day and not at night.
- Once you start the drive uphill, there is no turning back.
- Stick to the limit as it is a narrow road meandering up and down through the deep forest.
- There's a picnic area before entering the park, with restrooms.
- Roaring Fork is a nice cool area even in the summer.
- There are so many trees that there is shade everywhere.
- Best Italian Restaurant: Italian
- Puckers Sports Bar & Grill Inc.: American, Grill
- No Way Joses: Mexican
- Legends By Max Restaurant: American
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- Roaring Fork Address: Rte. 441, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN 70068, Gatlinburg, United States
- Roaring Fork Contact Number: +1-8654361200
- Roaring Fork Timing: 24-hrs
- Best time to visit Roaring Fork(preferred time): 08:00 am - 02:00 pm
- Time required to visit Roaring Fork: 02:00 Hrs
- Try the best online travel planner to plan your travel itinerary!
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5.1/10
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51.19% of people who visit Gatlinburg include Roaring Fork in their plan
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1463 Times
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3 PM - 4 PM
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63.3% of people start their Roaring Fork visit around 3 PM - 4 PM
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2 Hrs
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People usually take around 2 Hrs to see Roaring Fork
91.08% of people prefer to travel by car while visiting Roaring Fork
People normally club together Climb Works Canopy and Smoky Mountain Opry while planning their visit to Roaring Fork.