Top 10 Things to Do in the Smokies in Spring

A nonprofit event that has run for more than 75 years, held over four days each April in the national park. Professional guides lead walks and programs on wildflowers, ferns, fungi, trees, birds, salamanders, photography, art and park history, and attendees come from more than 40 states. It is the best way to learn what you are looking at on the trail.

The park service calls out Porters Creek for its often spectacular wildflowers from late March through April, with the best displays in the first 1.5 miles. The trail sits in the quieter Greenbrier area, about six miles east of Gatlinburg off US 321, which makes it a calmer choice than the busy trailheads on Newfound Gap Road.

From mid-April into early June, Dollywood's Flower & Food Festival fills the park with more than a million flowers, including giant mosaiculture sculptures of local wildlife, a topiary of Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors and the Umbrella Sky art installation. The displays and live music come with regular admission, so it is an easy spring day for every age in the group.

A three-quarter-mile loop at the Chimneys Picnic Area, 4.4 miles south of Sugarlands Visitor Center, that the park says offers some of the best spring wildflower viewing anywhere in the Smokies. It is short enough for grandparents and small kids, and the picnic area makes it easy to bring lunch for the whole group.

A creekside trail that starts on the side road just before Elkmont Campground. The park lists its first two miles as a top wildflower walk from mid-March through April, and because you can turn around at any point, it works for a mixed group where some want a short stroll and others want to keep going.

The only waterfall in the park with a trail that passes behind it, a 25-foot fall reached by a 2.6-mile round trip on the Trillium Gap Trail. The trailhead is on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, which reopens each spring, so April is one of the first chances of the year to walk behind the curtain.

An 11-mile, one-way loop around a valley of three churches, a working gristmill, barns and log houses. In spring, the first two miles of Gregory Ridge Trail, just past the Cable Mill area, are on the park's list of wildflower walks, and the 5-mile round trip to 25-foot Abrams Falls starts at the far end of the loop. From May, the road closes to cars on Wednesdays.

The tallest waterfall in the park, at the end of an 8-mile round trip that gains more than 2,100 feet from the end of Ramsey Prong Road in Greenbrier. The park calls it popular but relatively challenging, so this is the pick for the strongest hikers in your group. Budget most of a day and bring plenty of water.

For a short window each year, usually between the third week of May and the third week of June, the fireflies at Elkmont flash in unison during their mating season. Access during the peak nights is by lottery on Recreation.gov, which opens in late April and awards a vehicle reservation for one specific night. It is one of the most memorable nights you can plan.

The area's largest automotive event, held each spring at the LeConte Center with hundreds of show cars, a car corral and a large swap meet. Even group members who do not care about cars tend to enjoy the people-watching, and the awards and cash giveaway keep the weekend lively. For 2027 the show moves to a new month, late May.