If you’re planning on hiking the Panthertown Valley Backcountry area, be aware that there’s a bear activity alert posted. Active or not you’ll likely see bear tracks. Panthertown Valley is a unique place geologically speaking. It’s all at a fairly high elevation but the valley floor is sandy and lined with low granite domes and walls a couple hundred feet high. You’ll run into spots with bright white sandbars in the middle of creeks and the water has a lot of tannins in it so can be a little surreal as if the beach got plunked down in the middle of the mountains.
Been looking all through the area on google maps. Looks like we could spend a whole week just getting to all the waterfalls. We like Gatlinburg for all the restaurants, etc., but the crowds are a bit much at times.
Where we picked at Banner Elk this year was about halfway up the Beech, a house with a deck and view of Grandfather. We stayed at a condo on the top of Beech several years ago. We like to cook our own breakfast, and eat on the deck. Maybe grill steaks one night.
If you can think of a place in the area area that fits that bill (real nice deck with views or next to a creek), let me know.