Wears Valley is the pleasant surprise in the middle of a tourist map. On one side, a few miles away, lie Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg with their pancake houses, mini-golf courses and neon, and on the other the long blue wall of the Smokies. Wears Valley sits between the two and manages to be quiet. The valley is a broad, green trough of farms, churches, roadside stands and cabins, with Cove Mountain rising along one side and the national park boundary behind it, and a creek wandering down its length. It takes its name from an early settler family, the Wears, who came here in the late eighteenth century.
The reason to come is the road. US 321 and the roads that lead off it climb over the ridges around the valley in a mix of curves, with long views back across the farmland. The valley is also where the eastern end of the Foothills Parkway's long-awaited Missing Link begins, with its tall bridges and sweeping views, so riders can take the quiet parkway to Walland and beyond. The surface is good, the traffic is thin compared with the tourist strip, and the bends have enough variety to keep a rider interested without being tricky. Fall colour weekends bring the crowds back, and summer thunderstorms roll in fast over the mountains in the afternoon.
The valley has a gentler cultural story than the resort towns. Before the park was established in the 1930s, the Smokies were home to scattered farming communities, and many of the old churches and farmsteads still stand. The Cherokee had long used the area as hunting ground, and some of their place names survive. Nearby, Townsend calls itself the peaceful side of the Smokies, a pitch that suits the valley too. Wild turkeys wander the roadside fields in the mornings, and deer graze at dusk.
You will find small stores, cafes and a few gas stations in the valley, but for a wider choice Pigeon Forge is about eleven kilometres away and has everything, including heavy traffic. A sensible plan is to eat in the valley, fill the tank before the climb, and keep the evenings for a slow ride home along the ridge.