Top 10 Unique and Quirky Attractions in the Smokies

Billing itself as the world's only salt and pepper shaker museum, this Gatlinburg stop displays more than 20,000 sets from around the world, some dating to the 1500s, plus about 1,500 pepper mills. The founders, a former archaeologist and her husband, also run a sister museum in Spain and treat the collection as history as much as kitsch.

The name is literal: live goats graze on the roof, and visitors send feed up to them on the goat-cycle conveyor. Around the goats you will find the Goat Coaster, nearly a mile of track at up to 30 mph, 36 holes of animated dinosaur mini golf, gem mining and a sweet shop with fudge and ice cream.

Ancient Lore Village is a storybook fantasy village built around author Tom Boyd's tales, with themed dwellings like the Gremlin Den, Orc Home, Leprechaun Lair and Fairy Cottage. Day passes add archery, axe throwing, trails and character-led tours with storytelling. It sits 15 minutes from downtown Knoxville and about 30 minutes from Pigeon Forge.

At Smoky Mountain Llama Treks, every hiker gets a professionally trained llama as a personal trail buddy for a walk through the woods at the Llama Treks farm in the Cosby foothills. The Padgett Mill Trek comes in short and extended versions, a shorter llama farm visit is also offered, and hikers from 5 to 100 have made the trip.

Hillbilly Golf bills itself as the world's most unusual miniature golf, and the trip up makes the case: an incline railway lifts players about 300 feet above the city to two 18-hole courses built into the mountainside, lined with mountaineer-themed hazards. It has been operating for more than 50 years.

Ripley's is the granddaddy of the weird-museum genre, and the Gatlinburg location packs hundreds of strange-but-true artifacts, interactive games and stories into its galleries on the Parkway. It is the easiest quirky stop to fit into a downtown day, and it works for every age in the group, from skeptical teens to curious grandparents.

Tennessee Silencer, out in Seymour, runs a machine gun rental range that is open to the public year-round and a tank driving experience, which is about as far from mini golf as the Smokies get. It also offers free silencer demos across its catalog. It suits adult friend trips and milestone birthdays better than young families.

Circle Bar T is a working forge where you forge your own knife alongside the smiths and take it home as a souvenir. It is hot, loud, hands-on and memorable, a smart pick for the relatives who would rather make something than ride something, and a natural fit for a milestone birthday or a friends' trip.

Little River is a family-run rock shop and gem mine with an old mining-town yard full of unusual, sometimes bizarre statues. Buy a bucket, sift it at the water-powered flume and keep everything you find, then feed a geode into the cracking machine and let the owners tell you what you've got.

Parrot Mountain is the rare attraction where the exhibits come to you: hundreds of tropical birds, from lories to toucans, in walk-through aviaries and open-perch gardens on about four acres. Hand-feed some species with nectar cups, pose for photos with perched birds and hold young birds in the nursery.