About Wonderland Hotel Site (Elkmont)
The Wonderland Hotel was the grand building of Elkmont, a vacation hotel that opened in 1912 in the heyday of the logging railroad. The building is gone, and what remains is the site.
What the hotel was
The National Park Service describes the Wonderland Hotel as one of two resort communities, along with the Appalachian Club, that grew out of the logging era at Elkmont. Visitors came by train, and the hotel hosted guests through the summer. After the park was established, the hotel continued to operate for decades under lease. The building deteriorated, and it no longer stands.
What is left
Foundations, chimneys and the graded ground of the site remain under the trees. Chimneys are the clearest markers of lost cabins and hotel wings; the NPS notes that visitors can explore Elkmont on foot via the Jakes Creek and Little River trails, which pass stone walls and chimneys marking former resort cabin sites. The site is a short walk from the campground and the Little River.
Visiting
- Where: Elkmont, off Little River Road about 5 miles from Sugarlands Visitor Center.
- Access: open to walk; stay on paths and don't climb on walls or chimneys.
- Time to allow: 45 minutes to an hour.
- Parking: the Elkmont lots fill by mid-morning; a parking tag is required for stops over 15 minutes.
- Trails: check the park conditions page.
Context
The preserved side of Elkmont is the Appalachian Club: 18 cabins are being preserved, and the Appalachian Clubhouse and Spence Cabin were rehabilitated in 2010 for day use by reservation. Daisy Town's cabins and the Levi Trentham Cabin add other layers. See the NPS Elkmont page. Elkmont is also where the synchronous fireflies appear for about eight nights from late May to mid-June (2026: May 20 to 27), by lottery.
Good to know
- Do I need a parking tag?
- A Park It Forward parking tag ($5 a day, $15 a week or $40 a year) is required for any vehicle parked more than 15 minutes inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Entry is free, and federal passes such as America the Beautiful do not replace the tag.
