The Best Dog Friendly Hikes in the Smokies

Check out a newer (2020) updated version of this post on my new blog: The Best Dog Friendly Hikes In The Smokies

Before I take the furry kids on a trip, I always like to check out what there is for them to do in the area we are traveling to. Great Smokey Mountains National Park is not what I would call a “dog friendly” national park. But it’s completely justified because of the black bear population, as well as, the park being the most visited national park in the United States! 

As is the case with most national parks the furry kids are allowed to be in your car, campgrounds, picnic areas, and along roads but must be kept on a 6-foot (max) leash at all times (because, ya know, bears). They are not permitted on many of the trails within the park with the exception of two trails that are great for the puppers. The trails suggested for dogs also offer some beautiful scenery. 

I did contact NPS and ask about Thor because there was really no direction on service dogs on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park website. I got a very quick and kind response saying that Thor is permitted anywhere inside the park but if I were hiking with him on trails other than the dog friendly ones, I needed to check with rangers to make sure there was no bear activity that day.  No problem! 

Our favorite and the closest to our Airbnb was the Gatlinburg Trail. I took the boys for a walk almost every day of our trip on this trail. The trail is a flat and an easy 1.9 mile walk, one way. This trail runs through the forest beside the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River.The boys loved playing in the water and swimming on the way back through the trail. Another pretty cool feature of this trail were the foundations and chimneys of several old homesites.

The other trail listed by NPS as being dog friendly is the Oconaluftee River Trail. This is on the North Carolina side of the park. I opted to do Mingo Falls in Cherokee instead of this hike. However, if I had more time, I would have loved to take the boys on this 1.5 mile one way trail. 

The boys and I did this very short “hike” while the MR was fishing in the trophy waters on Cherokee tribal land.  First off, let’s start with Mingo Falls being called Big Bear Falls in the Cherokee language because that’s just so much cooler. This trail is only .4 miles but is listed as moderate because it is almost straight up and contains 161 stairs to the top. This trail is not inside the national park and is therefore dog friendly. The boys got a ton of love from people on this trail and even decided to take a nap at the falls! This waterfall cascades at nearly 200 feet and is gorgeous and pretty impressive after some rainfall. To read more about our day in Cherokee, NC click here.

I will also say that while in the park we saw several people taking dogs on trails other than the Gatlinburg and Oconaluftee trails. It obviously can be done but I didn’t want to risk the chance of running into a bear (although I saw 1 bear during our entire 5 days trip haha). Also, one person making mistakes i.e. leaving dog poop or allowing their dog off leash on a trail kinda ruins it for the rest of us pet parents. Don’t be that person, please! 

There are several options of parks within Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, but we were looking for trails over a park setting. I will say many of the hikes I had listed on my “Unplanned List” were too far away to even consider with only have 5 days in the Smokies. Either way, the boys were happy with their daily walk on the Gatlinburg Trail and hiking up Mingo Falls on our Cherokee, NC day!