Deep Creek Trail Trailhead — Attraction in Bryson City

The sound of laughter greeted us as we exited our vehicle at Deep Creek Trail in the Smoky Mountains, the most visited National Park. People were having fun, and the parking lot at this trailhead was packed.

In the first few minutes after exiting the car we spotted a large 10 ft black snake sunning itself near the parking lot. It slithered off, thinking the same thing as us, best not to get to close. It might have been stalking a small lizard with a brown body and a blue iridescent tail that sparkled in the sun.

Everyone was quickly energized by the animals, and the laughter. We made sure we had charged batteries for taking photos, and water. Changed into hiking shoes and set off for two spectacular waterfalls in the area.

We were family hiking with ages 3 to 43, so for the little legs in our group we chose Deep Creek due to the easy family route, and the chance to see two waterfalls close to each other.

Before we even got to the first falls, we saw the source of the laughter, people were tubing down the river. During our short 1.5 mile hike we saw at least 40-50 people tubing. They were having a blast. It is on our list to do next time. We enjoyed watching them navigate the rapids, and had fun watching them climb out and do it again.

As we hiked on we reached the first waterfall which started about 80 ft above our heads as a small trickle and cascaded down the rocks widening out to a large wide, lazy waterfall. It was fun to watch how people chose to capture it. From action camera in the river to selfies near the edge.

We continued further into the trail and reached the second of the falls. This was best viewed by descending down a deep cut staircase that required balance as it was very slippery and steep. Arriving at the bottom the tree roots were great hand holds and beautiful display of lattice. The shorter falls was much more powerful with a lot more water rushing off the rocks. The endless rush of water was mesmerizing and made for great photos.

For the more adventurous hiker there is a third falls nearby but as we had other things to see we opted to move on that day. It was a great experience and fun to celebrate the 100th birthday of the...

My family camped, hiked & tubed Deep creek 4th of July weekend. Its a beautiful area & great fun however the campground operated by GSMNP is very disappointing. All Reservations are done online by recreation.com. Since it was holiday weekend, expected to be busy & I got the last 2 available seperate tent sites. Upon check in, I spoke w/ranger of possibly checking on the sites I reserved to see if I could just set up in one of them. She was not willing to do any inquires & told me i could do whatever I wanted & the risk was mine if people showed up. My observation of the campground for the weekend. There was several unused sites...empty! but the campground was fully booked.🤔 No ranger inforces any rules, such as quiet hours or day use parking in the campground only area or sites being occupied by none reserved people. Bathrooms need to up dated. The womens door squeaks all night long & the light(inside) are flood lights. Why? They need to install a low light motion sensor fixture. My husband made a comment that fits for our camping experience, its a trailer park!!! Worst 2 nights of sleeping ever. Partying way into early morning hours, babies crying, people fighting, car alarms going off, headlights turned toward campers, people setting up & tearing down all thru the night then the next morning just after sunrise, rangers cleaning bathrooms & mowing day use area. 🥴 I've been camping for decades & noticed that since these online reservation websites took over, campgrounds have gone downhill. Poor customer service however prices...

We researched a few different waterfall hikes before taking our trip to this area and planned to check out Deep Creek on day 1. We were happy to hear from some locals in the coffee shop (our first stop) who highly recommended it & this one did NOT disappoint!!

Lots of little waterfalls throughout the hike, beautiful streams along the trail, high and low elevations, with good footing, and well-marked paths. It looks like some of the trails allow horses, though we didn’t see any. They appear to have camping, picnic areas, and more (though we didn't utilize any of that). There were a lot of families in the area the day we hiked, but most of the trails are wide enough that everyone can distance themselves without issue.

This was a great way to start out our weekend and we highly recommend you check it out if you are...