Elkmont is a big campground located on little river.  I spent the weekend here, and had a great time with cool weather.  Warm during the day and just above freezing at night.

I drove up to clingmans dome at sunrise and caught a brief amazing glimpse before clouds covered up the whole view.  It was really interesting the way the conditions changed so quickly.  I made a short youtube video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5LIvzDiSY4

I fly fished around the campground, but didn't have much luck until I walked a good distance upstream on the little river trail.  It was a great afternoon, and all fish I caught were rainbows and about hand size.  Nothing remarkable, but time well spent and very enjoyable.  

I would love to bring my son here, and look forward to trying to get a spot next year to bring him here.

As a note, I drove through gatlinburg early morning and the traffic was awful.  I turned left after gatlinburg and rather than having to head back through town there was a bypass, which was a huge time saver.

This campground has a lot of sites on the water front.  

We only stayed one night on our way to N.C.  and it was about right length as I was ready to go. The lake is really great, but our view was through the forest, so It wasn't as good.  They have some really cool looking cabins that would be a fun way to spend some time.  

The visitors center had nothing of interest for me or my son which is the first time this has ever happened.  No cool decals to adorn the back of our trailer.  Oh well.  

Bathrooms seemed clean.  The sites are well spread out with the exception of waterfront and some are almost directly on the road.  Our's was.  I think if we had more time and rented a kayak or a canoe (Which are available, it would have been more fun).

This was my second time to this campground.

I have loved staying here both times.

The fishing is excellent, but near the campground is fished pretty hard.  

Right down the road is some nice ice cream shop and food.  It's sort of a perfect spot.  

The sites are far enough apart, and the campground is mostly flat and huge.  

It's great for riding a bike.  

Some sites are really shaded and some sites are more wide open.  

If it's warm , you can go down near the back of the campground and there is a great swimming hole.  There were a lot of people skipping rocks, and playing in the water down there.   

It's a great campground!

Cades Cove is awesome.  The loop can be hiked, biked, or driven by car.  The loop is the real attraction and it's a really great experience with the history and things to see.

The gift shop is the best I've been in for a campground.  There is a restruant that sells food inside, and the part I loved was that It sold ice cream.  It closed at 5pm, so I only got it once.

The pavilion has good WIFI.

The bathroom in our area must have had something wrong as it looked clean but smelled horrible.  Other bathrooms didn't have this issue.

Our site C55 was so close to the neighbors I would not recommend that site.  Some sites did not have this issue, but that campground really packs people in pretty close.  

I really loved the trip there, and would recommend it, especially if you don't stay in c55, and they somehow figure out how to clear up that horrible smell in the bathroom near c55.  haha. 

Lots and lots of fireflies each night.  My son loved it.

My son and I went to this camp ground over memorial day.  It's a very big campground with a horse stables area separate from the camping area.  The horse stable offers horse rides starting at $40 bucks for an hour through the forest.  I asked if experience was needed and the worker said, no experience necessary.  I thought it sounded great, but my traveling partner did not (9 year old son).  haha

The campground is big, with a lot of  sites, but they seem closer together than some campgrounds, some are further out than others, our site was really close to our neigbhors and the creek was just across the road so we really drowned the majority of there noise.  I feel like the NPS campground are typcially close together so this was what I expected.

No running water at campsite, but plenty of water spouts around.  

No showers in bathrooms.

Most of the sites are really shaded, but some do have full sun.  There was one near us that had no trees and I am thinking they wished they had some.    It seemed "dark" early as you are in a valley, which was a unique experience for my son.  

temperatures were cool in the evenings, so we didn't need any A/C which was nice sicne there is no power hook ups.  We didn't notice many generators running during the day.  I did imagine the people will only running to top off the batteries, but who knows.

We woke up and went to clingmans dome one morning and it really cold and really windy.  If you plan for sunrise, pack a warm jacket.  I wore a fleece vest and fleece jacket and was cold till we walked to the observation tower.  It's a short paved walk, but it is straight uphill, so be aware of it.   the experience is one that should be had if you are in the area.  When we arrived around 530 am the parking lot was about 1/3 full. but I've heard stories that this parking lot is always very full, which is why we went sunrise instead of sunset.  

There was a lot of people fishing the nearby bradley fork and lots of reports of trout caught.  I did fish one pool for about 30 minutes, and did not have any fish to hand, but I saw quite a few fish in the pool over the weekend.  the water temperture was 54 degress, but my son and some other boys swam in the creek everyday.  It was not hot, but kids have a different threshold for cold I guess, and the excitement of the moving water in teh creek is hard to resist.  I got in to my knees.   I would like to return without my son and do some adequate walking away from the campground upstream to get into some less pressured water.  It's on my list.

We went to cherokee but not the casino area.  It was the section right outside the park.  Which is a mixure of old stuff, new stuff, and things that are closed or being revamped, or who knows.  We ate lunch one day at a pizza resturant right there called wize guys and it was good pizza.   

My 9 year old son rated this campground as 10 out of 10.

The park is nice, but outside of the lake there isn't much to do, and I think that is ok.  It's why I went.  

It seems that many of the sites are water front, and if you have a paddle board or kayak or a boat it would be really fun.  

There is a beach area, and some people were swimming, but It was too cold for us to do that.

We did fish a lot from the shore, but we never even had a bite.  It didn't seem like anybody around us did either.  The water was still pretty chilly in the first week of april.  

We had really good cell signal with T-mobile (5G phone), and streamed movies at night.