We left the Brown County/Nashville KOA and headed to the Clinton/Knoxville KOA located in Clinton Tennessee. This would be another 310 mile trip or about five and a half hours with rest stops and fuel.
As usual, Eva couldn’t wait to get back in the truck and travel. We have her seat belted into a Sleepypod car harness in the back seat but she still has enough room to turn around, or lay down. Tammy researched a lot of car harnesses before we purchased the Sleepypod. The deciding factor was that it had been extensively crash tested, which most are not. If you are curious about this harness, you can visit their site by clicking here. We are not sponsored by them, we just really like their harness.
Eva often takes a nap during our travels, and all we can see is her muzzle peaking up over the seat protector. However, as soon as the truck slows down she is back up on her feet, trying to figure out what’s happening. Of course once we get to the campground she is equally excited to get out of the truck and settle in to our new location. She is a great camper!
The Clinton/Knoxville KOA would be a three night stay for us. We wanted to visit the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge and then check out the Great Smokey Mountains. This KOA was about an 50 minutes away from the Titanic Exhibit and it is a little over an hour from the Smoky Mountains National Park.
This KOA I would put in the category of average, mainly because the sites are really narrow. I actually saw one Travel Trailers awning about an inch from their neighbors slide out. Your picnic table will be very close to your neighbors septic hook ups. As a matter of fact our neighbors fire pit was about two feet from our kitchen slide, which is dangerous. We barely fit in the site with our travel trailer and truck combined. Not a great situation for sure.
The grounds are fairly well maintained, but the grass is pretty long. This results in getting your shoes soaking wet from the morning dew if your headed to their dog park which is by the entrance.
Be aware that this campground has speed bumps through it, and they are not small ones. As any RV owner knows, bouncing is not good for an RV. I have to say this was the first time I have encountered speed bumps inside a campground. I think it was a poor decision to have these.
This KOA has a separate area for full time renters, that they obviously keep from looking run down or trashy. I would say, that the owners do care about the appearance of their campground.
The folks that work here are very nice but don’t seem to enforce the leash rules, at least in one case that we noticed. A camper across from us had her small dog off leash, and it wandered away and was returned by the staff. However, no one made her tether her dog the entire time we were there; even though they drove by often and saw it off leash. For other campers that have dogs, they now have to worry about what might happen if that dog strays into their site. It is really unacceptable for a campground to tolerate this type of behavior.
Speaking of bad behavior, I took Eva out one morning around 5:00 AM, and an older couple was loading up to leave the campground. They were shouting back and forth to each other as if it were noon. Tammy and I have seen more inconsiderate behavior on this trip than any other trip we have taken. It’s not just this campground, it’s everywhere.
On the plus side of the equation, there is a fantastic Mexican Restaurant right next to the KOA. Then just outside the KOA there is a Shoneys. The Mexican restaurant had awesome food; and you can walk there in about five minutes from your site at the campground. We also tried the Shoneys. I have to say, we haven’t been to a Shoneys in about 25 years, but this one was very good. So you have options very close to the campground.
They also have decent WIFI and Cable.
We had a fellow camper from Texas visit us a couple times when we were sitting outside the trailer. You can meet some really nice folks on the road!
So let’s talk about Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This KOA puts you about 52 miles from Pigeon Forge, and about 59 miles from Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg is on the edge of the Great Smokey Mountains State Park.
I’m going to start by saying something that won’t be popular; that the traffic in Pigeon Forge is a complete mess. Pigeon Forge has only 6200 residents, and based on the traffic, probably 100,000 tourists. The big draw here is Dollywood, a theme park owned by entertainer Dolly Parton and Herschend Family Entertainment. This traffic made getting to the Titanic exhibit an exercise in frustration. I was unprepared for what this traffic was going to be like. I have driven in horrible traffic when I worked in the Chicago area; but this was a whole new level of bad.
The Titanic Exhibit in Pigeon Forge has a half scale replica of the Titanic that houses the museum. Built in 2010, the Museum contains 400 pre-discovery Titanic artifacts. Adult Tickets are $32.00 USD if purchase on-line, and three dollars more if you purchase at the museum.
The tour is self guided with a headset that you control as you go room to room. The high point was the Grand Staircase. This stair case is an exact replica of the original Titanic Staircase. Every specification of the original including the exact same materials was used. It was nothing short of spectacular.
They do not allow you to take pictures or videos at the exhibit until you get to the Grand Staircase. Once you climb the stairs to the second floor you are permitted to take photos. There is so much to see in this museum that you could easily spend the entire day there. If you want to learn more about this museum click here.
Now, if Pigeon Forge traffic was horrible, you won’t want to miss the bypass around Gatlinburg. We saw the sign that said “Bypass” but that is all that it it said. It certainly would have been nice if it had said “Bypass to Smokey Mountain State Park”. Instead, we ended up going through Gatlinburg. This town has a whopping 4000 residents, with a two lane road going through about a quarter of a mile of pure driving hell; it took over 45 minutes to go that quarter of a mile. This place made Pigeon Forge seem like an interstate highway.
The sidewalks were jam packed with people. I kept asking myself why would any sane person want to be involved in staying here? Adding insult to injury is that you need to drive all the way through Pigeon Forge to get to the Great Smokey Mountains and Gatlinburg.
I’m sure some folks love the hustle and bustle of tourist towns. This is just not for me.
Beyond Gatlinburg, the Great Smokey Mountains National Park was amazing. Just the views of the mountains and the scenery in the park makes this a must see destination.
The smoke that hovers over the mountains is actually a type of fog rising from the specific vegetation on those mountains. This vegetation creates volatile organic compounds or VOC’s. Besides the odors they create, high concentrations of these compounds will create fog (hence the smokey appearance). But don’t worry these VOC’s are harmless.
As you drive through the park, keep in mind the roads are curvy and the speed limit is for the most part quite slow. It will take you quite a while to get through the park. We probably saw about half before we turned around. We would have done more if we hadn’t ended up spending so much time in traffic between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. However, I think we saw enough to satisfy our curiosity.
After three days and some pretty frustrating driving, we were ready to move on to our next stop, the Degray State Park Resort in Arkansas. To continue to the next stop on this trip click here.
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