Cades Cove Campground Store

If you are a biker, this will be a good loop for you. If you are older and an occasional biker and in only so so shape, this will be hard on you. We had to push bikes up a lot of hills and the downhills are quick runs. But we did make it and we did enjoy it. We stopped to look around at many of the spots, so that takes time and energy. One bike needed air in a tire half-​way through and we had to ask other tourists for a pump. The stops around the part need to offer a pump. Go for the electric bike unless you are a regular biker. You will enjoy the loop much, much more. It is very scenic and nice on the bikes. You can enjoy the great outdoors just as well on an electric bike and if you are not a regular biker, do you really want to work hard on vacation? Not this hard. It took us about 4.5 hours. They charged us for 2. That was really nice of them. I don’t know what an electric bike is like, but that is what I plan on next time. Also, spend some time to get a good fit on a bike and make sure you are happy with it and with the settings. Also, traffic was backed up getting out of the loop, but we rode past them on the shoulder. That was a bit dangerous, but we weren’t going to sit in line on the bikes. A bike lane would have been nice.

Took a friend new to the area to Cades Cove. We rented bikes from the campground store. Sadly, it rained MOST of the 11 miles around the loop. We stopped a couple of times and the chain kept slipping off one of the bikes, which was frustrating. The guy who rang us up gave us the bikes FOR FREE, for 4 hours. THANKS MAN. Great experience, despite the rain!

Review for the campground
If you are looking to see the animals late in the evening or early in the morning this a great place to stay. It is right outside the entrance to Cade Cove. If you are staying in Gatlinburg its an hour drive to Cades Cove on a very twisty road. Like most National Park Campgrounds this is a dry camping. A dump station and water are avaiable onsite. Generators are allowed to be used during the day on one side of the campground, if you need to top off your batteries. If you prefer quiet, there is no generator section. All sites have a firepit/​grill and picnic table.

Great little place to stop after making the loop in Cades cove. They offer souvenirs and other things related to the park. Plus you can’t go wrong with a ice cream cone on a warm summer day. I stop every time I’m in the park.

We showed up ten minutes past the cut off time for renting bikes (which was not posted on the website) after driving 30 miles to get there. The woman just looked at us and said «no more bikes today.» No I’m sorry or anything. When we asked what else there was to do, the only suggestion she had was to drive around the loop which turned out to be equally frustrating and less scenic than the actual drive out there. If this place had ANY competition, it would go under within a year.