Gatlinburg trip, Part III: Downtown

For as long as I've known about Gatlinburg, Tenn., which came mostly from acquaintances who had been there, I'd envisioned it being another American tourist trap town. But its proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park intrigued me, nevertheless.

I finally landed there at the end of April, and while the community certainly merits the phrase "tourist trap," the nearby park makes it a bearable one. Well, OK. Tennessee is one of the few states in the country that has legalized moonshine, so there also was that curiosity.

The main thoroughfares are packed with eateries, sundry shops and crafts stores, a few galleries and the like. And if Gatlingburg isn't enough, there are additional tourist traps -- Pigeon Forge and Sevierville -- just up U.S. 321 and 441.

Gatlinburg also has a space needle (our itinerary was pretty well decided ahead of time, so we never made it to that), although I'll quickly add that from a distance, it doesn't look near as tall or formidable as its better known (and older?) counterpart in Seattle. And, as we found out on the last day there, there is the city's newest attraction -- the recently opened 700-foot-long SkyBridge, billed as the longest suspension pedestrian bridge in the country.

You have to take a SkyLift to get to SkyBridge, but it promises to be worthwhile. It overlooks the whole town and, I can imagine, provides dynamic panoramic views of the mountainous terrain.

So if I missed SkyBridge and the space needle, what could I possibly have photographed of interest in downtown Gatlinburg? Well, the shops. There are plenty of them.

One of the pleasantries of town is the trolley transit system, which the town runs daily over a half-dozen or so routes. One of the trolleys is shown in the photo leading off the post. You can pay $2 for an all-day pass or 75 cents per ride, whichever you think will work best in your budget. We tried the all-day pass on our first full day and enjoyed seeing some parts of the community we knew we weren't otherwise going to see by the time our stay was over. But we still didn't see all the town.

As always, if you'd like to view a larger, sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. This is particularly helpful if you access the blog from a mobile device. To see a full gallery of images from several visits to downtown Gatlinburg, follow the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: Most of the images in this post were taken with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens. I made three exposures of each composition, some of which I later melded into one image using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. Many of the images indoors, however, were taken with the iPhone, which was giving me better detail and stop action than my DSLR.

Above: Before bombarding you with photos extolling the commercial lures of Gatlinburg, I'll show one of several landscape friendly vistas of Cliff Branch, a brook that winds through the downtown area. 

We had our meals at our resort while Gatlinburg except for lunches on two of the days we spent considerable time downtown. One was at Ole Red (above), a relatively new restaurant opened by country music star Blake Shelton. The other was right next door -- Landshark Bar and Grill (below). 

Above: We stayed at a resort several blocks from downtown, but there are plenty of resorts dotting the main merchants district in the downtown area, including one of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville resorts 

Above and next three below: Various snapshots of store facades (more will come later). 

Above: Town Hall is on U.S. 321, but a few blocks from the heart of downtown. When we spent a day using the trolley, we picked it up very close to Town Hall.  

Above: A post dedicated to colorful signage. 

A plaza off the main street (above), loaded with more shops and eateries. One of the shops was  a Life Is Good shop (below), a favorite of Lee Ann's. 

Above: Intersections with traffic signals are numbered in Gatlinburg, so people can refer to them on maps that are widely available. The maps help visitors navigate in their own vehicles as well as when riding the trolleys.

Above: Another post devoted to information sharing.  

Anakeesta (above) is an attraction offering sky lift rides to a bluff overlooking the town. Below, a clock on top of a shop. 

Above and next two below: More stores fronts and signage. 

Above: My rusty street photography skills kicked in to grab this shot coming out of the shopping cove off the main street. 


Next up: Mynatt Park

Previously in this series: 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Ripley's Aquarium