Little Pigeon River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

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Flowing through the Smokies. Little Pigeon River, Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee

You'll hear it before you see it. The steady ripple, the splash of trout, the distant laughter of hikers. That's the Little Pigeon River, threading its way through Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Long before tourists tubed it and fly fishers angled in it, this river was how people stayed afloat. The Cherokee tribe fished in it. Settlers built grist mills along it. Towns like Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge grew up next to it. Even the river's name is a nod to the past—the passenger pigeon, once common in the area, vanished by the early 1900s.

The West, Middle, and East Prongs of the Little Pigeon come together to form a system that cuts through the Smokies and flows into the Pigeon River. Trails like the Gatlinburg Trail run alongside the river, offering flat paths with water views and shady rest spots. Some hikes, like the Ramsey Cascades trail, follow the river deeper into the park and reward you with impressive waterfalls. Black bears, salamanders, kingfishers, and the occasional river otter treat the Little Pigeon like their favorite watering hole. So, next time you're in the Smokies, don't just look up at the peaks, listen to the water below.