Guide to Visiting the Smoky Mountains as a Digital Nomad
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As a digital nomad living in my car, most visitor guides to the national parks are useless to me. They do not include information about places where I will be able to get good wifi signal to work remotely, where I can shower, or where I can park long-term and affordably. This Digital Nomad Guide to the Smoky Mountains aims to fill this void.
As autumn approached this year, my fall foliage radar pointed me towards Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. I decided to stay from mid-September to early November, hoping it’d be the best time to watch the seasonal colors change and that the air would be crisp for hiking adventures. My aim is to help digital nomads like myself plan an extended stay, especially if they live out of their cars or are vanlifers, but these tips should be helpful for anyone planning an outdoors-focused vacation to the Blue Ridge.
This post is part of my Digital Nomad Guides to the National Parks series, which also features posts about Southern Utah, Big Bend, etc.
Where Nomads Can Work in the Smoky Mountains
Best Car Camping for Nomads in the Smoky Mountains
When choosing a place to post up and work remotely, I looked at proximity to the trails I knew I wanted to hike. Charlie’s Bunion, Ramsey Cascades, and Mount LeConte are all most easily accessible from the Tennessee side of the Smoky Mountains rather than the North Carolina side, so my basecamp was in Kodak. I only paid $45/month to park and sleep at Smokies Storage and Parking!
This was perfect for my purposes because my car living setup is self-contained. I don’t need hookups or amenities, so paying extra for a regular RV campsite doesn’t make sense. Half the time those places won’t welcome car campers anyway. As Smokies Storage and Parking works on completing the office/storefront spaces onsite, you may even be able to work from this location.
Dispersed campsites listed on freecampsites.net and The Dyrt didn’t help me much on this trip. The lucrative tourism business here also means paid campgrounds can be expensive. Some nights if I ended up far from the storage space, I would park at Cracker Barrel, Walmart, or in suburban neighborhoods that felt safe. When I drove over to North Carolina on some of my off days, I used the Facebook group RoadTripHer to find safe free parking places to sleep in between hikes (I love this group; I feel so much safer knowing I’m on a fellow female traveler’s private property).
While I usually prefer dispersed campsites, I’ll admit I wasn’t too disappointed not to find good ones near the Smokies with reliable cell signal. Living in my car means I have food in my car, and I was paranoid about bears becoming interested in my truck if I were to park in remote forest areas. It was a very active bear season in the Smokies, with some attacks reported in 2021.
Best Place to Work Remotely Near the Smoky Mountains
I didn’t own my Jackery power station yet at this point (my more recent Digital Nomad Guides to other national parks assume you do have your own power source), so I also rented a coworking space in Knoxville as it was impossible to find something affordable any closer to the national park. I chose e|spaces for coworking because I could get a private office. They have an open plan space too, but I have to take a lot of phone calls for work that might disturb people. They were accommodating about my weird hours, accepted my mail, and had free coffee, snacks, and parking too!
List of Coworking Spaces in Knoxville and Asheville
e|spaces
Regus Knoxville
Aught
Mojo Coworking
Hatchworks
Regus Asheville
Focal Point
WestBase
WorkAbout
Showers and Laundry in the Smoky Mountains
There are Anytime Fitness gyms in Knoxville, Sevierville, and Asheville so you can shower. Each town has coin operated laundry as well.
Knoxville vs. Asheville
While I loved my parking and coworking spots in Tennessee and enjoyed Knoxville as a town, if I were to do this trip over again I might choose to base myself out of the North Carolina side instead. To get to many of the trailheads on the Tennessee side, you must drive through the towns of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, which are both heinous exploitations of the environment and local history. Pigeon Forge is like a theme park, complete with larger than life replicas of King Kong and the Titanic. Driving through town, I couldn’t help but imagine the forest that must have been cleared to make room for these garish behemoth buildings. It really made me sad.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited of all America’s parks at 12 million per year. Visiting Pisgah National Forest, the Roan Highlands, Linville Gorge, and Shining Rock Wilderness in North Carolina is much more relaxing and down to earth. You don’t have to claw your way through a Las-Vegas-Strip-esque obscenity to get to trailheads. The drives are delightful, actually. I loved all the quiet, idyllic farmhouses surrounded by rolling hills and sparkling forests of autumnal red, orange, and yellow. Early in the morning the mist hangs around the shadowy silhouettes of horses and cows.
Free Parking in the Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains National Park does not charge an entry fee! My American the Beautiful annual parks pass was useless. This likely contributes to crowding, but it also means you don’t have to question whether you have the right credentials to park at certain trailheads.
Since my “nomad” style involves living in my truck, free parking and camping is a godsend. There are three public parking garages in Knoxville that offer free parking on nights and weekends – Market Square Garage, State Street Garage, and Locust Street Garage. On weeknights you want to enter after 6pm and leave before 7am in order for it to be free. I was able to park for free at my coworking space as well. Street parking in Knoxville is pretty easy in suburban neighborhoods, but downtown it is metered and often full.
Be sure to check the latest seasonal road and trailhead closures on the Park Service website. During my trip, Cades Cove was closed for paving work, and Abrams Falls was only open on weekends (I work weekends).
How to Work Remotely While Living Out of Your Car
Car Camping Weather and Conditions in the Smoky Mountains
The Smoky Mountains are a Cloud Forest
If you’ve seen pictures of the Smoky Mountains or Blue Ridge Mountains, then you know they’re famous for their iconic layers of rolling blue hills highlighted by lingering mist. They’re a watercolorist’s dream. This is exactly why European settlers named them “Smoky”, taking a cue from the Cherokee name “Shaconage” meaning “place of the blue smoke”. I never stopped to wonder why the fog hangs so low over the mountains, but as soon as I arrived I had flashbacks to my time in the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica. I googled the similarities and, sure enough, the Smoky Mountains are a cloud forest too!
Cloud forests are like high elevation rainforests. The Smokies have a high moisture level which is blown in from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, and as it gets trapped in the forest canopy, cooler mountainous temperatures slow evaporation. The moisture fosters lush biodiversity in plant and animal species, and for the time being this blanket of fog is protecting the region from climate change.
The haze affected my daily life as a car-living nomad in Tennessee and North Carolina in a few ways. Firstly, almost every single morning when I woke up, condensation cloaked the windows of my truck. I cleaned them off so I’d be able to see while driving, and employed my windshield wipers for the first 30 minutes of every drive even if it wasn’t raining.
Since I was car camping, rainy days prevented me from being able to use my Coleman 2-burner stove. It must be placed outside in the open rather than in an enclosed space, and I didn’t have an awning or umbrella to put over it, so when it rained I couldn’t cook hot meals. I loved rainy nights, though, so I could listen to the patter of raindrops lull me to sleep.
The fog also meant that on some mornings when I arrived at a trailhead to hike, visibility was extremely low. This was interesting and moody, but could be disappointing if obstructing a beautiful viewpoint. Luckily I remembered the saying “if you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes”, which was a winning strategy for me at Carver’s Gap in the Roan Highlands. I reached a spot that I surmised must have a pretty view, if only I could see it, so I found a good sitting rock and waited. I knew that once the sun had a chance to rise higher in the sky, it would burn off the mist and reveal the secret of my surroundings. I’m so glad I had the patience. Scroll to the last photo to see what’s behind the curtain!:
Strangely, rainfall and dense humidity were not the drag they could have been. Growing up in Southeast Texas right on the Gulf, I know a little something about relentless, oppressive humidity. Contrastingly in the Blue Ridge, once the sun had been up for maybe 30 minutes, much of the veil would already be lifted. There were one or two weeks that it rained multiple days and I decided not to do as much hiking, but to make up for it, Mother Nature gave me three times as many glorious, perfect days. The weather cycles back and forth and keeps you on your toes.
When it did rain, it was rarely heavy and a light rain jacket was appropriate for the drizzly weather. However, this past summer they did have a massive hurricane blow in from the south which washed out a few trails in Shining Rock Wilderness and created a couple landslides. I am familiar with flash flooding in desert slot canyons, but didn’t realize water could be powerful enough to fell trees and boulders here in the Appalachians. Storms are something to keep an eye on if you travel here in the summer.
Best Time of Year to Car Camp in the Smoky Mountains
I probably could have waited until October to get started with this trip. The leaves hadn’t made a ton of color progress quite yet when I arrived in mid-September, and it was still hot in the afternoons. I’m glad I had the extra weeks to do more hikes, but adding those weeks onto the end of the trip in November might have been preferable. Conceivably they could get snow as early as November, although not usually until December. I had the whole month of October, though, which did welcome me with beautiful fall foliage! I’d say the “peak” of the fall colors in the Smokies this season was the last week or two of October, but it varies by year. You can find maps of where/when the colors are at peak, like this North Carolina map.
If you’re able to do some advance planning, being in the Smokies for the synchronous firefly event would be incredible. This occurs every year for a few weeks during the firefly mating season, typically between the third week of May to the third week of June. You must win tickets through a lottery. All lottery applicants are charged a $1 application fee, and those who successfully win tickets will be charged an additional $24 and given a parking pass. Check here to apply, or to find out when the lottery will open for next year’s viewing.
Spring and summer are also a good time to see wildflowers, although there may be unpredictable storms. Depending on the hikes you choose, you might also be competing with thru-hikers for space on the Appalachian trail (they typically begin around March or April in Georgia and finish in Maine in September).
The winter can be an interesting time to hike in the Smokies! Plenty of adventurers still go out in the snow. You’ll have more solitude and the bears will be hibernating. However, some roads are closed in the winter, including Clingman’s Dome and Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Even those that are not expected to close every winter season may have random closures based on unforeseen weather conditions. You can check the latest Blue Ridge Parkway road closures here, and Smokies closures here and here.
Smoky Mountains vs Blue Ridge Mountains vs Appalachian Mountains
Before this trip, I was incredibly confused about the difference between the various wilderness areas and mountain ranges. Do they just have 20 different names for the same thing? If not, what is the difference?
In planning your trip, you’ll want to understand the following designations: The Smoky Mountains are a small subset within the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Smoky Mountains are only located around the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Mountains stretch across eight states, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, which go through Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Maine, and extend into Canada.
The Appalachian Mountains are the oldest mountain range in America. They were once connected to the Scottish Highlands as part of the Central Pangean Mountains millions of years ago! I hiked in the Scottish Highlands myself when I did the West Highland Way, and I did have flashbacks to it while hiking in the Blue Ridge. Both ranges have low, soft, rolling hills weathered by time and shrouded in mist. Shadows of clouds make patterns across the peaks. Can you tell which pictures below are from Scotland vs Blue Ridge?
Click to enlarge:
You’ll often find yourself within multiple different designations at the same time. If you get confused about what greater area you’re in while visiting the Shining Rock Wilderness, Pisgah National Forest, Cherokee National Forest, Linville Gorge, the Black Mountains, or the Great Balsams, you can always feel confident defaulting to calling it “the Appalachians”.
Best Hiking Trails in the Smoky Mountains
I found local trail reports in the Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge to be off on their difficulty ratings. For this trip, I wasn’t setting out to do any strenuous backpacking excursions, but I didn’t want to take it too easy either. For a good overview of the Blue Ridge via moderately difficult day hikes, check out my post here:
Best Moderate Difficulty Day Hikes in the Smoky Mountains
Rainy Day Activities in the Smoky Mountains
When living in your car, endless days of rain can really push you to get creative. Thankfully, nomads can stay in a locale as long as we want without time constraints, so there is no reason to force oneself to hike in inclement weather out of fear you may not get another chance at the trail. If you do end up thwarted with rainy days and are itching to get out and about, here are a few alternative activities you can do in and around Smoky Mountains National Park. My post focuses more on the Tennessee side, but there are also plenty of things to do in North Carolina.
Cades Cove
Cades Cove was a pioneer settlement in a western valley of the Smokies before it became a national park. According to the Park Service, “The first Europeans settled in the cove sometime between 1818 and 1821. By 1830 the population of the area had already swelled to 271. Cades Cove offers the widest variety of historic buildings of any area in the national park.” While driving the 11-mile one-way Cades Cove Loop Road, you’ll have the opportunity to pull over and explore multiple homesteads, barns, and churches that have been beautifully preserved. Make sure to stop at the little ranger outpost at the beginning of the loop so you can grab an information booklet for a dollar; I loved reading about the people who actually built and lived in these dwellings! Ultimately these settlers were forced out when the land was bought for national park designation, much like the Cherokee natives who were forced out before them.
Vehicle-free access along the Cades Cove Loop Road takes place each Wednesday from May 5 through September 1. On these days you can enjoy the loop on foot or bicycle only.
Consider downloading a self-guided driving audio tour of Cade’s Cove prior to your trip! Audio tours are also available for the Blue Ridge Parkway and Smoky Mountains National Park, or you can get a combo tour of Cade’s Cove and the Smokies.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
The very first day that I drove into the Smokies, it was later in the afternoon when I arrived and I knew I wasn’t prepared for a hike yet. I just wanted to enter the park and get my first glimpse! So I chose to drive the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, which is a bit like the northern/central part of the park’s answer to Cades Cove. You’ll find a small collection of homesteads preserved for visitation, plus a couple trickling waterfalls. For a bigger waterfall experience, the trailheads for Rainbow Falls and Grotto Falls are also on this route. They get extremely crowded in the afternoons since this area is so easily accessible from Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, so arrive as early as possible.
Immediately within 10 minutes of driving onto the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail on my first day in the Smokies, I saw a mama bear and three cubs! Two of the cubs were wrestling while a third climbed up a tree at the speed of light. How many bears do you spot in my video?
Roaring Fork Motor Trail is open from April 9-November 28, give or take a few days each year depending on winter conditions.
Cherokee
On the southern boundary of the park sits Cherokee, North Carolina and the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Native Americans. Here you can visit the Museum of the Cherokee Indian to view Native artifacts found throughout the archaeological ages. You’ll also learn the history of what happened to the Cherokee after European contact and the Trail of Tears.
Nearby is the Oconaluftee Indian Village, which is a replica of an 18th-century Cherokee community. Take a tour to see demonstrations of weapon making, basket weaving, game trapping and jewelry making, and to learn about the 7 Clans of the Cherokee. I found both locations extremely informative and learned a lot about indigenous culture and history that I never knew before, though I also wondered what the ethical implications of my visit might be. Is it exploitative to pay Native people to dress up and perform for white tourists? On the other hand, education and awareness is being provided, customs are kept alive, and local people are making money from these demonstrations. Remember to be respectful on other people’s land and in their sacred spaces.
Also in Cherokee you’ll find the Mountain Farm Museum and Mingus Mill, where you’ll get an idea of what life was like for early European settlers in the 1800s in the Smoky Mountains. It is more “active” than some of the other preserved settler communities in the Smokies; when I went, there were live chickens and pigs on-site. I read that the blacksmith shop is a working shop, although it didn’t appear so on the day I visited. Having already visited Cades Cove and the Roaring Fork Motor Trail I’m not sure I really needed to see the Mountain Farm Museum too. In my opinion you could pick one or two and don’t need to see all three.
Elk can often be seen grazing around Oconaluftee, the Mountain Farm Museum, and throughout Cherokee.
The Cherokee syllabary was invented by Sequoyah between 1809 and 1824. It was one of the first Native American languages to have a written form, and allowed the Cherokee to achieve mass literacy. Today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the United States with more than 390,000 tribal citizens.
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary is known for having particularly brutal conditions during its reign from 1896 to 2009, and for multiple (often creative) inmate escape attempts. It’s where demon host James Earl Ray was incarcerated after he shot Martin Luther King Jr, and the story of his own escape attempt inspired the grueling Barkley Marathons.
Today you can take a self-guided tour for $16 or sign up for a private group tour for $26. I did the self-guided tour, which was a somber experience. In addition to wandering the cell block halls, cafeteria, “The Hole” solitary confinement area, and general grounds, you can also visit a museum full of artifacts like confiscated contraband and prisoner artwork.
Skip the gift shop, which is tasteless in my opinion. They sell souvenirs like “soap on a rope” as if making a joke out of the wretched lives spent behind these bars. Considering the inmates were disproportionately black, and one story surmises that the all-white guards purposefully put white inmates up to the task of staging a break-out with the goal of murdering black inmates, the story of Brushy is something that continues in other forms and in other prisons today.
Note: As of this writing, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary is not open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays. They’re open 10:30am-7:00pm all other days, with the last tickets being sold at 5:00pm.
Museums
In Knoxville I visited the East Tennessee History Museum, which has fascinating Native American and early European settler artifacts. It follows Tennessee history through the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, women’s suffrage, slavery and Emancipation, and more. I spent many hours combing through the displays and admiring the pristine condition of relics that should have been lost to time.
There is also the Museum of Appalachia, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture. In Asheville there’s the Biltmore (for a steep $65 ticket), the Asheville Pinball Museum, Asheville Museum of Science, Asheville Art Museum, the Moogseum, the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site, the Estes-Winn Antique Car Museum, and more! Plenty to keep you busy, warm, and dry inside.
Despite the crowding near the Smoky Mountains, car camping or basing yourself here as a digital nomad is possible with a little creativity! Ultimately it did involve a ton of driving back and forth, so I’m not sure I would extend my stay any longer than a couple months due to gas prices and the general effort required, but if you’ve managed to post up in the Smokies for longer I’d love to hear your experience! What’s your favorite part of visiting the Smoky Mountains as a digital nomad?
What I’m certain I don’t want is to find myself someday in a new century, an old bitter woman looking back, wishing that right now I’d had more nerve.
— Cold Mountain
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