{"id":209506,"date":"2025-03-25T10:15:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T14:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?p=209506"},"modified":"2025-03-27T13:43:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T17:43:37","slug":"sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge","title":{"rendered":"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Where: <\/strong>Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
When:<\/strong> spring, summer, fall
If you like:<\/strong> the outdoors and sports<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why you should go: <\/strong>One hundred years after it welcomed the first hikers to the top of Mount LeConte\u2014the third-highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park\u2014LeConte Lodge<\/strong><\/a> remains just as blissfully low-tech as it was in 1925. You still won\u2019t find electricity, internet, or running water, and the only way to reach its rough-hewn cabins is to lace up your hiking boots. But the lack of contemporary creature comforts hasn\u2019t kept the lodge from remaining solidly booked March through November. \u201cStaying at the lodge has been a longtime tradition for countless guests, many of whom have been gathering here for generations,\u201d says general manager John Northrup. \u201cAnd even with it being a hike-only destination, the trek to the summit is achievable for a range of fitness levels and age groups.\u201d The lodge is booked for the 2025 anniversary season, but Northrup invites prospective guests to call or email to join the cancellation list <\/strong>and advises checking the website toward the end of summer for information on 2026 reservations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G&G tip: <\/strong>Alum Cave Trail is the preferred trail for most visitors. At five miles, it\u2019s the shortest and the steepest of the five trails leading to the lodge but also the most scenic. Even still, Northrup suggests contacting the reservations office for the most up-to-date trail and safety information before you set out.<\/p>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The journey is the destination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":209507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-03-25T14:15:10Z","apple_news_api_id":"4b0cbbcf-5543-485e-b003-15b98fd6b7fd","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-03-27T16:21:49Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ASwy7z1VDSF6wAxW5j9a3_Q","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1785],"tags":[30482,367,30538,619,30501],"authors":[29326],"issue":[],"recipe-type":[],"class_list":["post-209506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-southern-bucket-list","tag-tennessee","tag-the-outdoors-sports","tag-travel","tag-year-round","authors-elizabeth-hutchison-hicklin"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nSleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge – Garden & Gun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The journey is the destination\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The journey is the destination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Garden & Gun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-25T14:15:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-27T17:43:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark-1600x1067.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gardenandgun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gardenandgun\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13\"},\"headline\":\"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-25T14:15:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-27T17:43:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/\"},\"wordCount\":252,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Southern Bucket List\",\"Tennessee\",\"The Outdoors + Sports\",\"Travel\",\"Year-round\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Travel\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/\",\"name\":\"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge – Garden & Gun\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-25T14:15:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-27T17:43:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"The journey is the destination\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg\",\"width\":3000,\"height\":2000,\"caption\":\"LeConte Lodge in the winter.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/\",\"name\":\"Garden & Gun\",\"description\":\"Garden and Gun magazine celebrates the modern South and features the best in Southern food, style, travel, music, art, literature, and sporting culture.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Garden & Gun\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg\",\"width\":166,\"height\":26,\"caption\":\"Garden & Gun\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/gardenandgun\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gardenandgun\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/gardenandgun\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Gardenandgun\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13\",\"name\":\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge – Garden & Gun","description":"The journey is the destination","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge","og_description":"The journey is the destination","og_url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/","og_site_name":"Garden & Gun","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun","article_published_time":"2025-03-25T14:15:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-27T17:43:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":1067,"url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark-1600x1067.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@gardenandgun","twitter_site":"@gardenandgun","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/"},"author":{"name":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13"},"headline":"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge","datePublished":"2025-03-25T14:15:05+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-27T17:43:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/"},"wordCount":252,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg","keywords":["Southern Bucket List","Tennessee","The Outdoors + Sports","Travel","Year-round"],"articleSection":["Travel"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/","name":"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge – Garden & Gun","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg","datePublished":"2025-03-25T14:15:05+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-27T17:43:37+00:00","description":"The journey is the destination","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/LeConte1_NoWatermark.jpg","width":3000,"height":2000,"caption":"LeConte Lodge in the winter."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/sleep-above-the-smokies-at-leconte-lodge\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sleep Above the Smokies at LeConte Lodge"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/","name":"Garden & Gun","description":"Garden and Gun magazine celebrates the modern South and features the best in Southern food, style, travel, music, art, literature, and sporting culture.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization","name":"Garden & Gun","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg","width":166,"height":26,"caption":"Garden & Gun"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun","https:\/\/x.com\/gardenandgun","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gardenandgun\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/gardenandgun\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Gardenandgun"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13","name":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209506"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=209506"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=209506"},{"taxonomy":"recipe-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/recipe-type?post=209506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}