Scenic pullout · Great Smoky Mountains National Park
A quick northwest view before the parkway meets I-40.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Great Smoky Mountains audio tourRecorded for this place
Allen Grove and Greasy Cove Overlooks“Up ahead is Allen Grove Overlook on Foothills Parkway East. Pause here for a northwest-facing view across wooded foothills and mountain ridges, though vegetation can screen part of the outlook.”
Plays as you drive up to Greasy Cove Overlook in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Greasy Cove is a roadside pull-off at mile 4.7 of the eastern Foothills Parkway, a 5.6-mile drive between Cosby and I-40. At 1,603 feet, it faces northwest across wooded Appalachian ridges. Stop if you’re taking the parkway for the views; it’s an easy one to skip when you’re just getting to the interstate.
The eastern parkway climbs about 1,000 feet along Green Mountain, with views toward Cherokee National Forest, Cosby Valley and Raines Knob along the way. At this stop, look northwest across the layered ridges. Framing a little of the near slope gives the distant mountains more depth. Brush can screen part of the lower view, so don’t count on a completely open panorama.
Parking is ample and undesignated. A Smokies parking tag is required if you stay more than 15 minutes, and the NPS lists no marked accessible parking spaces at the overlooks on this section. The nearest listed restroom is at Cosby Picnic Area, available seasonally. From the Cosby end, Greasy Cove is 0.9 mile before the parkway reaches I-40 Exit 443.
Wildlife
1,569 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
900 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
13 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
142 sightingsTimber RattlesnakeMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
26 sightingsBobcatMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
42 sightingsRiver OtterMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Great Smoky Mountains. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
Parkwolf’s Great Smoky Mountains ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
