The view from Thunderhead looking down into Cades Cove is well worth the hike about any time of year. If someone is in reasonable physical shape it can be a one day hike with a total of around 12-14 miles. Perons will need to pay close attention to the trail signs and never let kids out of their site hiking the area for any reason. Hiking there is fun and enjoyable but it can be deadly if you don't know what you're doing and go off the established trail. Much for so for a child. I was on that trail hiking the day following when they lost a 6 year old boy that was never found. That was in June 1969.
Spence Field, Russell Field, and Thunderhead Bald are on top of the mountain above the campground/picnic area side of the Cover. They are as I understand it natural fields and were used by the early settlers in the summer months. The trail is mainly an old narrow gauge rail road bed in most places built before the park. The abandoned railroad beds used for logging in the early 1900's became hiking trails in many places. To look at the pictures of this area and other parts of the Smoky's in the early 1900's it was vastly different as the mountains had been timbered off. In other words what you see now is a result of the land gone back to nature close to 100 years later.
I've hiked quite a bit in that area in my youth including several back country hikes over the mountain into an area called Eagle Creek for trout fishing.
I’m embarrassed to admit I have not been to Cades Cove since August 1979 (right about my 5th birthday). I hope to go back again sometime, but when my health is better. It’s a bit taxing for me to do long walks, though. I had a bit of trouble when I visited Cloudland Canyon State Park in NW Georgia (a beautiful state park if you ever get the chance to see it, reminiscent of some Western parks) with my being woefully out-of-shape to attempt a descent down to see a waterfall there, and that was a relatively short trail, just a bit arduous for me since you had to descend and ascend into and out of a canyon.