Davy Crockett Riding Stables is a popular trail riding company that’s located on a country fork about mid-way between Townsend and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Here, you can enjoy a wilderness ride through the forests and hills of Tennessee.
You will find Davy Crockett Riding Stables just a few miles off of the main throughway of Highway 321. You’ll take Old Tuckaleechee Road to Old Cades Cove Road and then find this western-styled stable standing right in the middle of the fork where this road turns into two. You can’t miss it! The primary building here is a massive two-story barn with the company’s name scrawled out in huge yellow letters. The bottom, sheltered part of this massive stick barn is where the horses that will be used for the day’s rides are kept.
Once you arrive for your reservation or walk-up trail riding experience at Davy Crockett Riding Stables, you’ll be grouped off with a tour guide who will walk you through some expectations for the trail as well as go after some standard safety guidelines. This tour guide will also get riders’ experience levels so that they can best match horses with riders. After this quick meeting, you and your traveling group will meet your horses and then it’s time to hit the trails!
One of the great things about Davy Crocket Riding Stables is that you can hit forested and mountain trails right from these central stables. In other words, the horses aren’t trucked from some other stable that you’ll never see. Here, you get to see the barns that the horses stay in that are “on-duty” as well as the pastures where “off-duty” horses graze about. This base camp barn also has an array of amenities to keep you comfortable should you have to wait for your tour to start. These amenities include full bathrooms, beverages, and a small gift shop.
After your tour group is saddled up, you’ll be led to the start of the trail which meanders off of the company’s property. As such, the first part of the trail ride may seem like nothing special as you ride through the more occupied countryside. But soon the fenceposts will disappear and you’ll find yourself in the middle of the woods on a gorgeous forested path. If you opt for one of their longer trail rides, you will also find yourself riding switchbacks up one of the mountainsides of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This route is mostly wooded with the rich diversity that exists within this region, but you will find several mountainside turn-out points that offer fantastic vistas of the area.
Davy Crocket Riding Stables is a family-operated affair and one that is certainly more laid-back and feels like a local experience. This makes this trail-riding experience a good choice for those looking for a more leisure-oriented, and not something more tourist-contrived. In other words, Davy Crocket Riding Stables doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but they do have happy horses that are well-cared for and they offer a great time riding through some gorgeous parts of backcountry Tennessee.
Insider Tips:
-Before you go, make sure you consider their reservation policies. Reservations are required during the off-season, which is from December 1st to March 1st and preferred during the warmer weather on-season months. However, while they do use the word “preferred” and walk-ups are welcome during the on-season, you might not appreciate how long you’ll have to wait to join a tour. On busy weekend days, walk-ups can expect to wait anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours.
-The longer trail rides do feature a couple of stops where guides will offer some information about the area and let you and the horses rest. It can be a good idea to bring some snacks and bottled water for these little pause points.