Joe Tennis
A collage of cabin photos for Hidden Mountain Resort in Tennessee | Blue Ridge Country
COMING TO HIDDEN MOUNTAIN RESORT in Sevierville, Tennessee, Chris Karle celebrated a reunion with his family members. And, it was no small cook-out. His family came from the Carolinas to California: all 83 members.
Karle’s clan rented 18 cabins, as well as The Lodge, a cabin-esque meeting facility. Their multi-day party featured communal meals, games for the kids, a family meeting and a golf-kart parade down the resort’s roads.
A father of four, Karle showed off some photos of the previous day’s parade. Then, he just started brag-ging – about Hidden Mountain’s “cleanliness, the organization and the privacy.”
He has also been bunking in these cabins for years. “We’ve stayed all the way from a two-bedroom to a three-bedroom,” says Karle, an Internet service pro-vider salesman from Waycross, Georgia.
His favorite?
“My favorite cabins are where my brothers and sisters stayed,” Karle says, “because I can trash that and go back to mine.”
The original owners, Butch and Brenda Smith, remain at the helm of Hidden Mountain. Established in 1981, this resort was one of the first places to rent a cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains. Today, says Summer Smith Orr, a daughter who handles market-ing, the resort features cabins that range from cozy single-bedrooms to 14-bed mansions.
In all, the resort’s two sections – East and West – boast more than 200 cabins, cottages and villas.
“You can also rent golf carts,” Karle says. “And you can travel all around the compound and visit your neighbors and family members.”
ON NEW YEAR’S EVE, this is where you’ll find the fam-ily of Amanda Woodlee. “We have kind of made it a family tradition. We get my extended family together in some of the larger cabins. And we just like to celebrate New Year’s that way,” says Woodlee, an executive assistant in McMinnville, Tennessee.
Woodlee, like Karle, has long been a cabin dweller at Hidden Mountain.
“It’s consistent. Everything is completely clean,” Woodlee says. “I’ve never been in one of their cabins where something didn’t work. If the fireplace is there, the fireplace works. If the hot tub is there, it works.”
Another bonus: security.
“I do like the fact that it’s gated,” says Woodlee, 30. “So, there’s not just a bunch of people driving through all the time. And, if I want to go for a walk, I feel pretty safe. I don’t feel like cars are going to run over me.”
Staying at Hidden Mountain, you’re close to the action-packed parkway linking Sevierville to Pigeon Forge – yet, Woodlee says, you are, oh, so far away.
“It does feel more secluded. You have to drive a-ways to get it. But, it’s not like some of those cabins that are miles and miles from town. It’s always a quick trip to get anywhere.”
Kori White also praises Hidden Mountain’s location.
“It’s far enough where you can feel like you can get away, but it’s really, really close. A couple of minutes, and you’re right on the main drag,” White says. “So, that’s kind of refreshing. This was actually perfect.”
Getting to Hidden Mountain required a five-hour drive from White’s home at Birmingham, Alabama. But every mile was worth it, says White, the vice president for a radio broadcasting company.
He described where he stayed: Cabin No. 4049, dubbed Above and Beyond.
“That cabin is beautiful,” White says. “The view is gorgeous. It’s warm. Just a wonderful little getaway.”
Above and Beyond boasts simply that – amenities that were above and beyond what White expected to find when he moved in for a weekend in April with his wife, Elena, and their three young children: Olivia, Noah and Jonah.
“I love the pool table. I didn’t expect there to be a pool table,” White says. “And, it was really cool to have the Jacuzzi on the outside. I love the naturally exposed wood on the inside. And the upstairs was like a totally different retreat from downstairs.”
That upper level features a king-sized bed and full bath.
“My wife and I had a hard time figuring out where we wanted to sleep and where the kids were going to sleep,” White says. “We stayed downstairs. And I think we’re going to wind up flipping - and have them stay downstairs next time.”
A covered bridge stands at a pond, just down the hill from Above and Beyond. White, 40, walked around that pond while his children fed the fish.
Woodlee, too, loves to linger at that inviting pool of water. “It’s really special in the winter,” she says, “because it all ices over.”
And in autumn?
“You can’t see leaves like that anywhere else,” Woodlee says. “It’s a really special time to go visit in the Smokies, in general.”
A visit to Hidden Mountain, for many, could not be complete without a trip to the Apple Barn Restaurant, standing nearby in Sevierville. That’s where White’s family went for pancakes. Woodlee, as well, loves the apple fritters.
“My family, we always go there the morning that we leave,” she says. “So, it’s a departure restaurant for us.”
Want to go?
What: Hidden Mountain Resort
Where: 475 Apple Valley Road, Sevierville, Tenn.
Info: 865-453-9850; hiddenmountain.com