
On Wednesday, March 9th, we took a Day Ride to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains.
At 10:30am, with temperatures nearing 60 and warming fast, we only needed our leather jackets, heavy gloves and 3/4 Pilot helmets. We packed our chaps just in case we needed them in the mountains.
We kicked off the day in this short video:
We left our home in North Knoxville, heading south on Broadway and connecting onto Chapman Highway.

We continued up Chapman Highway and into Seymour. Once in Seymour, we turned right onto 411 and traveled into Maryville.
Once in Maryville, we got on 321 and traveled into Townsend where we stopped briefly at the river view right behind Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. This is church property that welcomes visitors.



After enjoying our peaceful visit, we continued through Townsend, into the Great Smoky Mountains, and shortly on toward Cades Cove.


Once we reached the entrance, we began the eleven mile scenic loop. (You can find out more about the history of Cades Cove by CLICKING HERE.)




About fifteen minutes into the ride, we stopped to see the view.




After stopping and watching the fox play, we headed on our route. There are various cabins and churches along the way that visitors are welcome to stop and view.
Our next stop was twenty minutes later.


After this photo stop, we continued on the loop until exiting Cades Cove. The traffic on this mid week day in March was low and we made only three stops. Our total time inside Cades Cove was one hour. You could easily spend most of the day in Cades Cove if you visited all the structures and made more stops.
We rode back into Townsend and stopped at the Riverstone Restaurant to get a bite to eat. It was 2:30pm, so we were hungry.







Next time you are in Townsend, check out the Riverstone Restaurant. The folks are really nice and the food is really good.
After lunch, we jumped back on the bikes and took 321 through Walland and into Pigeon Forge. From Pigeon Forge, we got onto Dumplin Valley Road and road over to 25/70. This led us to Asheville Highway and then back into Knoxville.
We arrived home at 4:30pm and our total ride was 130 miles. A nice Day Ride on a beautiful March day.

Jeff wraps up the day in this short video:
You can see our entire list of DAY RIDES BY CLICKING HERE.