Scenic pullout · Great Smoky Mountains National Park
A quick mountain view from a stone platform off Foothills Parkway.
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 area
Look Rock Tower“Look Rock Tower is coming up, a short uphill walk to views across the Smokies and the Tennessee Valley. Allow thirty to forty-five minutes for about a mile there and back; the path is paved, but steep.”
Plays near Look Rock Lower 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
Look Rock Lower Overlook is a roadside viewing platform on Foothills Parkway West, below the separate Look Rock Tower stop. At mile 7.1, it gives you a mountain-and-valley view after a set of stairs from the parking lot, without taking the tower's paved trail. Choose this one for the shorter stop; the tower is the higher option if you have time for another walk.
The platform sits on a rocky outcrop behind a low stone wall and metal rails. Wooded mountain ridges spread out beyond it, with the valley below. On a clear day, the farthest layers are easier to pick out. For a photo, leave a strip of wall or railing in the foreground and let the ridges fill the frame; it shows where you're standing as well as the view.
A short paved trail just north of the parking lot leads to Look Rock Tower. From up there, the view opens across the surrounding mountains and Blount County. It is a separate stop, so you can keep this one quick or add the higher viewpoint if that's what you came for.
Look Rock drew visitors before the road or tower existed. Guests of Montvale Springs Hotel, dating to 1832 at the base of Chilhowee Mountain, made a rough three-mile hike to the 2,657-foot Look Rock viewpoint. The hotel burned in 1933. This section of Foothills Parkway opened in 1965, and the trail and tower were completed in 1967.
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
EasyLook Rock Tower Trail1 mi · 36 min · At the trailheadA short, paved climb to a tower with Smoky Mountain views.
ModerateLittle Bottoms Trail2.3 mi · 1.3 hr · 1.3 mi awayA rough backcountry link from Cooper Road to Hatcher Mountain.
ModerateCane Creek Trail10.5 mi · 6 hr · 1.4 mi awayCreek crossings, reclaimed farmland, and a cemetery above the path.
ModerateCooper Road Trail10.9 mi · 7 hr · 1.5 mi awayA long old road linking Abrams Creek with Cades Cove.
ModerateRabbit Creek Trail7.7 mi · 5 hr · 1.6 mi awayCreek fords and a wooded ridge link two remote park ends.
EasyGold Mine Trail2 mi · 1.5 hr · 2.1 mi awayAn old-road climb from Cooper Road toward Gold Mine Gap.
ModerateHatcher Mountain Trail2.8 mi · 1.8 hr · 3.3 mi awayA pine-lined connector with May blooms and winter ridge glimpses.
Sight · 0.2 mi awayLook Rock TowerA 1967 tower at a mountain lookout with 19th-century history.
Picnic area · 0.4 mi awayLook Rock Picnic AreaA 51-site picnic stop beneath the trees along Foothills Parkway West.
Campground · 0.5 mi awayLook Rock CampgroundWooded campsites with a short trail to the Look Rock tower.
Campground · 1.4 mi awayAbrams Creek CampgroundA quiet creekside base for camping and longer trail days.
Sight · 3.8 mi awayAbrams FallsA 25-foot cascade makes the long Cades Cove hike pay off.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.
