Cades Cove Campground

Cades Cove is always one of our favorite campgrounds, we enjoy visiting. However, we were extremely disappointed that vehicles were allowed on the road, as it was posted on the website that it was for pedestrians and bicyclists only, on the day we reserved. We needed to reserve months in advance to get a campsite on Tuesday-Thursday. We drove quite a distance and were never notified that there had been a chance of dates.

Trip would have been fabulous if cars were not on the Cades Cove Loop as park service website advertised. Several times cars ran me off the road while I biked the scenic loop. One person even blocked my way with his huge truck, proceeded to get out and yell violently at me to get off the road. That I had no right to be there on my bike. Really?!!! Can’t y’all drivers share? And why did the park decide to not honor their no-car Wednesday policy thus putting all of us cyclists who came to ride at risk? Very disappointing and NOT what I paid to camp and bike for. Beautiful but disturbingly dangerous. Would be an awesome ride without cars!

Nice quiet campground in the midst of Cades Cove Loop! Easy check-in, site was as expected, beautiful surroundings.

One of the nicest National Park (or otherwise) campgrounds we've ever visited! The sites were beautiful and the facilities were clean and well taken care of. It was close enough to everything we were interested in doing in the Smokies. We had a great trip!

We had a great time! The check-in rangers were not rude but very business like check-in (tell us about your hikes, which are the best and less extrenuous-over at the table you can buy maps) other rangers in the park we're helpful with enjoyable conversation, what's expected of a National Park. Campsites were spaced out we were not piled on top of everyone. Most importantly don't forget to purchase the day passes if you plan to hike or be away from your car for more then 15 minutes.

nice campground, bad weather, overall great experience.

Lots of RVs and noisy also due to sounds of lots of insects. Very touristy, but close to lots of possibilities to view bears and wildlife.
Also close to Abrams trail.

Campground is great. One thing that could be improved is eliminating some of the poison ivy!! It was all around the post i was supposed to put the hang tag on, along the walking paths from the bathrooms to the sites etc. it would be great if this were sprayed.

We love camping in Cades Cove surrounded by beautiful nature and have been camping in CC for 50 years as we grew up in Knoxville. Made reservations months ago as usual for our annual trip in May. Very sadly, we didn’t learn until firm plans set and bikes rented that they pushed back the car free wednesdays until mid June. Very disappointing as the main reason we make the trip in May before school is out and campground less crowded. Loop jam packed as usual with cars, trucks, vans but we managed to ride with the flow but a lot less pleasant. Hopefully this will change back next year. Know it hurt our favorite bike rental shop’s business as well.

Overall it was an excellent experience at the campground, considering the staff shortages. Fortunately our children are grown now, so the almost complete lack of campground nightly interpretive talks and ranger-led hikes around the campground that they so thoroughly enjoyed as they were growing up was not impactful on this trip. These talks were a major highlight for them each trip. It's pitiful that short-sighted politicians have taken that away from the current generation of children, as well as the great example the interpretive rangers presented to the children, just pitiful.
My other major complaint is that it was impossible to definitively determine th opening date for B-loop, which determines the ending date for generator use on C-loop. Recreation.gov did not display that date at the time we had to make reservations months in advance, nor as we got closer to our arrival date. All the sources I could find indicated B opened May 15, but when we arrived we were told B had opened Good Friday, and that it always opened Good Friday. If that truly is the case, Rec.gov needs to clearly state that so folks can plan accordingly. Other campers I talked to had encountered the same confusion. This is critical information at the time a lot of folks are making their reservation months in advance. Ditto the opening date of the Wednesday closure of the loop road to powered vehicles. We set our trip dates almost a year ago based on safe bicycling of the loop, because the closed Wednesdays "always" start in May. I know the staff in the Smokies, and indeed the entire sub-management staff of the NPS are not responsible for this childish, irresponsible behavior, but rec.gov and the NPS top "management" need to work with the Dept of the Interior to get their act together or "America's Best Idea" is going to sink into chaos.