We just got back home from a ten day vacation in the Smoky Mountains. Rented a cabin with a fantastic view on Zurich Drive in Gatlinburg. Driving in the hills was a trip to say the least! I thought the driveway we had was steep until we saw a few others! We will definitely be going back again as we had such a great time. First day there we found a black bear wandering the driveway LOL and a few days later I was in my car playing with the Garmin for a while and when I got out the guy in the cabin up and behind us was honking his horn and waving at me saying, there is a bear on the other side of your car. I got back in right away and slammed the door and it wandered off into the woods.

We stopped at Smoky Mountain Knife Works and holy cow it is am amazing place with something for everyone. Way more then just an amazing assortement of kinves as they also had firearms and a part called the "relic room" with all kinds of neat stuff. If you are ever in that area I recomend checking out Smoky Mountain Knife Works. We ended up going back again and the wife spend more there than I did. There is also one of the Buds gun atores right behind it and we checked that out too. So, so much to do in that area including the Great Smoky Mountains national park and super friendly people.

Have any of you visted SMKW? If so pease share your thoughts of it.

https://www.smkw.com/

https://www.therelicroom.com/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: grumpy1,

Really cool place, it would take you a few hours to see everything. I bought a USA made Boker OTF there, good price

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Really cool place, it would take you a few hours to see everything. I bought a USA made Boker OTF there, good price

Yeah, at least a few hours. my wife spend that much time going throught the rocks and mineral area. She bought a few pieces of amber with insects inside and misc rocks and petrified shells.

Nice on the USA made Boker.

Grumpy1, cool post.
My wife and I are planning a trip down to that part of TN next year, trying to figure out if we are going to go in April or Oct.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works is a place I want to visit, along with Bud's Gun Shop & Range. Also trying to figure out how to add the Glockstore in Nashville to our trip.

We will be taking our dog down with us, so planning on getting a small cabin for a week. We had plans of going down a few years back, but had to cancel them. Really hope to make it down next year.

I enjoy stopping by there whenever we vacation nearby. As you said, much more than knives. Easy to spend several hours and several dollars there.

We stopped there a couple years ago. It’s knife eutopia for sure. You can easily spend all the kids go cart and putt putt money there!

Glad you enjoyed your visit to TN. We are about 4 or 5 hours away from the smokies and have been many times over the last ~50 years. I used to have family in Gatlinburg and thus a free room any time I wanted to visit. Have rented a cabin several times.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works...
Great... except...
Just don't utilize the $1.00 knife sharpening service in the basement... drop off your knife and while you shop they sharpen it. They almost ruined a pocket knife for me the one time I tried them. It wasn't sharp when I left it but was even duller when I picked it up One would think they actually knew how to and could actually do a fair job. Nope! Maybe the janitor was filling in while the real guy was on break or out sick...

Cades Cove is a favorite of ours but swamped with tourist a lot of the time...

There's a lot to see and do there but it is very touristy . Traffic can be horrible in town . Choose your travel dates carefully .

Don’t forget the moonshine distilleries, Dollywood, some great dining, etc. Its a beautiful area. Gatlinburg recovered faster than I thought possible from the fire.

SMKW started as a mail order catalog with price leaders and catchy ads. Sold a lot of imports and close-outs, overstocks kinda like cdnn for knives.

I've been to the store a few times and like it. My experience with their sharpening service was very good. I watched the guy sharpen my knife and he used a large belt sander and was very proficient.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Glad you enjoyed your visit to TN. We are about 4 or 5 hours away from the smokies and have been many times over the last ~50 years. I used to have family in Gatlinburg and thus a free room any time I wanted to visit. Have rented a cabin several times.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works...
Great... except...
Just don't utilize the $1.00 knife sharpening service in the basement... drop off your knife and while you shop they sharpen it. They almost ruined a pocket knife for me the one time I tried them. It wasn't sharp when I left it but was even duller when I picked it up One would think they actually knew how to and could actually do a fair job. Nope! Maybe the janitor was filling in while the real guy was on break or out sick...

Cades Cove is a favorite of ours but swamped with tourist a lot of the time...

Nice.

We went through Cades Cove also. Not too crowded on that week day but you can only go as fast as the slowest car in the line LOL but still well worth it.

Momday morning we took the hike to Laurel Falls which was really nice around three miles round trip. Not that crowded early Monday though I expect traffic is down too because school has already begun in most places which is why we like late August to go there.

We also went last year but did not stay near as long so we came back again. Renting a cabin was great and we were close to both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and learned our way around the area much better this time ncluding using the Gatlinburg/Pigeion Forge bypass.

It is a ten hour drive for us but at least no flying. I am done flying for now when possible due to the mess with cancelled flights. I recently came home from Las Vegas visting family there and return flight was cancelled suddenly. Luckily I was staying with family and did not have to scramble to find a place to stay.



Very gun friendly state too which is important to us.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: grumpy1,

quote:

Originally posted by Orive 8:
Grumpy1, cool post.
My wife and I are planning a trip down to that part of TN next year, trying to figure out if we are going to go in April or Oct.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works is a place I want to visit, along with Bud's Gun Shop & Range. Also trying to figure out how to add the Glockstore in Nashville to our trip.

We will be taking our dog down with us, so planning on getting a small cabin for a week. We had plans of going down a few years back, but had to cancel them. Really hope to make it down next year.

Sounds great! I think you will really like it. Just remember that there are a lot of bears around in regards to your dogs. Here in Illinois we never see bears other than at the zoo.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
Don’t forget the moonshine distilleries, Dollywood, some great dining, etc. Its a beautiful area. Gatlinburg recovered faster than I thought possible from the fire.

Thanks! Wife visited a few moonshine tastings last year, what a hoot watching her reaction to the different shots she tried. She also LOVED the big Christmas store in Pigeon Force and spent the last night at the Christmass Inn. That big aquarium in Gatlinburg is absolutely stunning to visit if one likes aquariums. We went again and got to pet sting rays and jelly fish LOL but the highlight is the long underwater glass tunnel for viewing the main pond and all the amazing fish in there including the sharks and viewing them from underneath them as they swam over it.

Have not checked out Dollywood yet, but that is on the to do list. We tried three different BBQ places this time and a three different pnacake houses. Loved them all and prices were very reasonable too plus FRIENDLY service. I love Tennessee.

We live about an hour away and visit often. Season tickets to Dollywood give us many excuses to stop by SMKW and Buds. The bears are becoming such a problem in Gatlinburg downtown that they’re tagging them and relocating them into the Cherokee National Forest closer to us. Had one run through the campground at Indian Boundary while there. Only thing that sucks up there is the crowds and traffic. Gets heavier every year. Recommend trying out a food joint next to the Harley dealership called No Way Jose. They have one in Gatlinburg as well.

Grumpy, one of our favorite campgrounds anywhere is behind SMKW, beautiful, riverfront spot. Somehow it feels very secluded. It’s called two rivers Rv resort.

https://tworiversrvresort.com/

quote:

Originally posted by 10X-Shooter:
We live about an hour away and visit often. Season tickets to Dollywood give us many excuses to stop by SMKW and Buds. The bears are becoming such a problem in Gatlinburg downtown that they’re tagging them and relocating them into the Cherokee National Forest closer to us. Had one run through the campground at Indian Boundary while there. Only thing that sucks up there is the crowds and traffic. Gets heavier every year. Recommend trying out a food joint next to the Harley dealership called No Way Jose. They have one in Gatlinburg as well.

Thanks for the info. We saw a bear at the end of our driveway trying to get into vehicle at cabin behind us. It grabbed door handle with paw and when that didn't work used it's mounth to try and open. A couple days later our car alarm whent off early in the morning. I went out to check and found bear slobber on the passenger side front door handle. We keep doors locked and never any food inside car.

We saw the No Way Jose restarant just by the aquarium and will stop there next vist.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Yarchin:
Grumpy, one of our favorite campgrounds anywhere is behind SMKW, beautiful, riverfront spot. Somehow it feels very secluded. It’s called two rivers Rv resort.

https://tworiversrvresort.com/

Thanks for the info Jeff. We will check that out next visit.

quote:

We went through Cades Cove also. Not too crowded on that week day but you can only go as fast as the slowest car in the line LOL but still well worth it.

We did that on the motorcycles and it's true you are no faster than the slowest car, and the people in that car will never, ever notice the 30 vehicles backed up behind them, nor move any quicker if they do, needed to be pull outs for them to move over, of course they wouldn't use them... Thankfully half way round there was a cut out lane and we left.

Still interesting place, just not on a Motorcycle at 2 MPH....

We were on our way out of Cade's Cove and got stopped behind a line of 20 vehicles . People were bailing out and running forward . I asked somebody what was going on and they said somebody saw a Bear . Are you freaking kidding me ?? Have you people never been to a Zoo ?