7 Scenic Drives Near Gatlinburg You Can Drive Yourself

Gatlinburg sits right at the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which means some of the best scenic drives near Gatlinburg start less than ten minutes from downtown. You don’t need a guided tour, a permit, or any special vehicle, just a full tank of gas and a rough idea of which road actually delivers the views you’re after.

This guide covers seven routes, from the well-known Newfound Gap Road to the quieter Greenbrier area that doesn’t get advertised nearly as often, along with current 2026 seasonal opening dates so you’re not planning a trip around a road that’s closed for the winter.

The 7 Scenic Drives Near Gatlinburg at a Glance

The best scenic drives near Gatlinburg are Newfound Gap Road, Cades Cove Loop Road, Foothills Parkway, Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Kuwohi Road, Little River Road, and Greenbrier, all inside or bordering Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Every one of them is open to any regular car, no off-road capability or permit required.

• Newfound Gap Road, the classic drive across the park, connecting Gatlinburg to Cherokee, North Carolina
• Cades Cove Loop Road, an 11-mile wildlife-watching loop past historic cabins
• Foothills Parkway, ridge-top views without touching the park’s busiest roads
• Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, waterfalls and log cabins on a narrow one-way loop
• Kuwohi Road, the drive up to the highest point in the Smokies
• Little River Road, the quieter route toward Townsend
• Greenbrier, the pick for skipping the crowds almost entirely

One thing worth knowing before you go: Great Smoky Mountains National Park has no entrance fee, but it does require a parking tag for any vehicle parked longer than 15 minutes, $5 for a day, $15 for a week, or $40 for the year. You’ll want one for stops along any of these drives, not just the trailheads.

Newfound Gap Road

Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) is the main road connecting Gatlinburg to Cherokee, North Carolina, climbing to 5,046 feet at Newfound Gap itself. The 31-mile crossing takes about an hour without stops, and it’s the only paved road that fully crosses Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the Tennessee side to the North Carolina side. Prefer to skip the highway traffic entirely? There’s a UTV route to Cherokee that covers the same crossing at a slower, dirtier pace.

The main stop is Newfound Gap itself, where a stone marker sits directly on the state line, a popular photo spot with a view stretching across both states. A little further along, Campbell Overlook is an easy pull-off worth the two minutes it costs you.

Newfound Gap Road is also the road you’d take to reach Kuwohi Road, since Kuwohi Road branches off it just past the state line marker, more on that drive below.

Cades Cove Loop Road

Cades Cove Loop Road is an 11-mile, one-way paved loop through a wide mountain valley, dotted with preserved 19th-century cabins, barns, and churches. It’s one of the best spots in the park for spotting white-tailed deer, and less often, black bear.

The tradeoff is traffic. Cades Cove is the single most visited spot in the park, and the loop can back up significantly on fall weekends and holiday afternoons. Early morning is the reliable way to avoid most of it.

If wildlife and history matter more to you than speed, this is worth the wait. If you’re short on time, Foothills Parkway (next) covers similar valley-and-ridge scenery with far less traffic.

The cove also looks completely different from a side-by-side, here’s the Cades Cove UTV route if that sounds more like your speed.

Foothills Parkway

Foothills Parkway is a two-lane scenic road running along the western edge of the park, offering ridge-top views over the valley without ever entering the park’s busiest interior roads. Look Rock is the standout overlook, a short walk to a tower with a 360-degree view of the Smokies on one side and the Tennessee Valley on the other.

Unlike Cades Cove or Newfound Gap Road, Foothills Parkway rarely feels crowded, it’s the closest thing on this list to a drive you can take at your own pace without planning around traffic.

Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a 5.5-mile, one-way loop just outside Gatlinburg off Cherokee Orchard Road, winding past preserved log cabins, mountain streams, and two waterfalls accessible right from the road: Rainbow Falls and Grotto Falls.

The road is narrow and winding by design, which is part of the appeal, but buses, trailers, and motor homes are not permitted. A standard car, sedan, or SUV handles it without any issue.

Because the entrance sits just a few minutes from downtown Gatlinburg, this is the easiest drive on the list to fit into a half-day that also includes dinner back in town. It’s also one of the stops on our Gatlinburg’s UTV trails, worth trying by side-by-side.

Kuwohi Road (formerly Clingmans Dome Road)

Kuwohi Road branches off Newfound Gap Road and climbs to the Kuwohi Visitor Center and Observation Tower, at 6,643 feet the highest point in the Smokies. The mountain’s name changed from Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi, its Cherokee name, on September 18, 2024, when the U.S. Board of Geographic Names officially restored it at the request of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. You’ll still see “Clingmans Dome” on some older maps and signage while the park finishes updating everything, but Kuwohi is the current, official name.

Kuwohi Road is seasonal, open from April 1 through November 29, and closed the rest of the year to snow and ice. If you’re planning a winter trip, this is one drive to cross off the list until spring.

Little River Road

Little River Road runs roughly 18 miles between Gatlinburg and Townsend, following the Little River for most of its length. It’s the quieter east-west alternative to the roads further east, with pull-offs for Laurel Falls and the Metcalf Bottoms picnic area along the way.

This one doesn’t get the same attention as Newfound Gap Road or Cades Cove, mostly because it doesn’t end at a single dramatic overlook, it’s a steady, scenic drive rather than a destination. That’s exactly why it’s worth including here.

Greenbrier

Greenbrier sits along the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River, a short drive from Gatlinburg on the park’s quieter northeastern side. It’s worth being upfront about what this is: not a through-drive like the others on this list, but a shorter in-and-out road that dead-ends at trailheads and picnic areas, without the loop or overlook a first-time visitor might expect.

What it does have is a real break from the crowds. If Cades Cove’s traffic or Newfound Gap Road’s steady stream of cars isn’t what you came for, Greenbrier is the option that actually delivers on “get away from it all,” even if it’s a shorter outing than the rest of this list.

And if fishing is your thing, Greenbrier gives you another reason to stop. Its quiet mountain streams are open to fishing year-round and offer a peaceful place to try for trout away from the busier areas of the park. Before you go, check the park’s age requirements and buy a valid Tennessee or North Carolina fishing license online or in a nearby town, since licenses are not sold inside the park.

Fishing is allowed from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset, and only artificial flies or lures with a single hook are permitted, so leave the live bait at home.

Best Time of Year for Each Drive

Timing changes which of these seven is worth prioritizing. None of these dates are exact predictions, mountain weather and foliage shift year to year, but the general pattern holds.

• Newfound Gap Road and Kuwohi Road: fall color typically peaks at the higher elevations first, mid-to-late October, before working down to the valleys in early November
• Cades Cove Loop Road: spring (April-May) for wildflowers and active wildlife, or a weekday morning in any season to avoid the worst traffic
• Foothills Parkway: any season, this is the one drive on the list least affected by crowding or seasonal timing
• Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail: late spring through summer for the waterfalls at their fullest
• Little River Road and Greenbrier: summer, when the Little Pigeon and Little River are low enough for wading near the picnic areas

Whatever season you go, check the seasonal road schedule before you leave. Kuwohi Road and Roaring Fork both close completely for months at a time, and showing up in December expecting either one to be open is the single most common planning mistake for this list.

Planning More Than One Drive in a Day

Newfound Gap Road and Kuwohi Road combine naturally, Kuwohi Road branches directly off Newfound Gap Road, so you’re already passing the turnoff. Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and Greenbrier both sit close enough to downtown Gatlinburg that either pairs easily with a half-day in town.

Cades Cove Loop Road and Little River Road connect directly, Little River Road continues on as Laurel Creek Road right into Cades Cove, so a full loop from Gatlinburg through both is one continuous drive rather than two separate trips. Foothills Parkway is the outlier, its western section sits far enough from the others that it’s realistically its own outing rather than an add-on.

Ready to Explore These Drives Yourself?

All seven of these routes are open to any car you’re already driving, no special vehicle needed. If you want to see the dirt-road stretches and backcountry routes these paved drives don’t reach, Our UTV rentals get you there.