Fodor's Expert Review Cades Cove

A 6,800-acre valley surrounded by high mountains, Cades Cove has more historic buildings than any other area in the park. It's also stunningly beautiful, punctuated by verdant meadows and dirt paths, all surrounded by a ring of peaks. The Park Service keeps hayfields and pastures cleared, so you can see how the valley may have looked in the 19th century. There's a campground and multiple options for day hikes to peaks and along quiet rivers. The Cherokee name for this valley is Tsiyahi, "place of otters," but today you're more likely to see bears, deer, coyotes, and wild turkeys. For hundreds of years the Cherokee people hunted in Cades Cove, but there is no evidence of major settlements. Under the terms of the Calhoun Treaty of 1819, the Cherokee lost their rights to Cades Cove, and the first white settlers came in the early 1820s. By the middle of the 19th century, well over 100 settler families were growing corn, wheat, oats, and vegetables. For a while, when government-licensed distilleries were allowed in Tennessee, corn whiskey was the major product of the valley. After the establishment of the park in the 1930s, many of the nearly 200 buildings were torn down to allow the land to revert to its natural state. More recently, the remaining farmsteads and other structures have been restored to depict life in Cades Cove as it was from around 1825 to the 1940s.  Cades Cove's beauty is also its curse. To experience it in the best possible setting, without traffic, rent bicycles at the Cades Cove Campground Store and ride the loop road on a car-free Wednesday or at sunrise or sunset.