Hidden Owl Cabin

01/23/2023

Ready to escape to the mountains? Hidden Owl is a 5-bedroom cabin with an outdoor hot tub and deck—perfect for a week or weekend away. Come stay and go hiking in the Great Smokies, visit Dollywood or simply enjoy the peace for the forest.

https://Airbnb.com/h/hidden-owl-family-cabin-smoky-mountain-getaway-hot-tub

01/01/2023

Happy New Year! Here’s to another year of adventures outside! And staying cozy and warm inside while planning the next one. Hope everyone is enjoying their coffee and big dreams for 2023!!

12/02/2022

Winter is here! It’s starting to be the season of flurries and snow. Such a great time of year to retreat to the mountains and be cozy in a cabin. Enjoying the hot tub outside in the middle of the forest is pretty magical, too!

05/04/2022

FREE NIGHT! Book two nights in May, stay for three! Memorial Day Weekend, May 26 - 30, book four and stay five! Book on Airbnb by messaging host. Deal does not apply to Instabooking Stays.

05/04/2022

Mornings at the cabin. A hike later today. But first, coffee. Feels like a three-cup morning—only because we have the time. ✨

03/29/2022

That’s what patios are for, right? A little wine and a little snack—all while surrounded by the beauty of the forest. Ahhhh. What a way to unwind. 🍷 🌲

03/26/2022

It’s starting to be green in the mountains! We’ve had a lot of sunny days lately with temperatures in the high 70s. It’s that perfect season for hiking—warm enough at mid-day that you want to at least dip your feet in the river. It’s a great time to visit or —see it all while not breaking much of a sweat. Nice!

01/31/2022

Cold mornings mean more time in bed, no? Have coffee and book, will linger! We’ve got the heat on and we’re staying toasty. Slow moving this morning for sure. Might leave the bedroom once someone else starts a fire in the living room fireplace. 🔥

01/15/2022

It’s the weekend! Time to unwind, explore and recharge. For us, the perfect Saturday starts with just-made waffles—followed by a hike, dinner made on the grill and then a soak in the hot tub while watching the stars.

01/09/2022

We have had a week! Lots of snow fell last Sunday night and early Monday morning. Definitely a snowed-in situation—and a winter wonderland for sure. Such a pretty sight, one that can be tricky for folks that aren’t used to driving on snow-covered roads. Stay safe out there!!

01/01/2022

Happy New Year! Here’s to 2022 bringing you a winning hand—whatever that looks like for you. Maybe it’s more travel with family, more adventures, more time outside, finding that balance between work and relaxation, or finishing that project you’ve been dreaming about. We support it!

12/11/2021

It has already started—the holiday rush to get the perfect presents and fix the perfect side dishes for the various gatherings. Last weekend, I went to Target and the parking lot was craziness! I parked in the absolute last space available.

This weekend, I’m taking it slow. An extra cup of coffee while I finish the book I’ve been enjoying this week. I’m doing my best to not get caught up in the whole shopping frenzy we call the holidays.

And, I’m already thinking ahead to after the New Year. Maybe a weekend away here, a weekend there. Most folks concentrate their travels around Christmas, which makes sense if vacations have to center around school breaks and whatnot.

But if you have a more flexible schedule, January is such a lovely time to travel. Just about everywhere on the planet, the rates are so much cheaper. It’s off-season. That’s definitely true for Hidden Owl and Pigeon Forge. Off season means it’s quieter—the perfect antidote to the holiday-season rush. ✨

11/20/2021

The past two years have definitely been a challenge for us all. The hardest part for many of us has been not getting to see family and friends as often as I’d like. But we still have time to change that, whether that means get-togethers in the next few weeks of 2021 or making plans for 2022.

This past week, I’ve started reaching out to my friends who live in other states—friends who, frankly, are the glue that holds my world together.

This past year, I’ve been jealous a lot of other people’s posts of travels with their friends and family. In 2021, I let work take over, and focused most of my vacation days on that. There wasn’t much time left over for bonding with friends.

But such is the power of awareness and intention. I’ve caught myself so many times this year wishing I was on holiday with my people. Now it’s time to stop wishing and start taking action. So I’m reaching out and building out the coming months, making sure I have time with my people whether that’s at or somewhere else. Granted, the cabin is my favorite go-to because it’s just easy. When I’m here, we don’t do scheduled vacations. It’s more like ‘get up when you want and see where the day takes you.’

One of my favorite days was with . We made eggs and toast, read, worked a little and spent the evening making vision boards, luxuriating in having time and space to laugh, talk and open our hearts up to our biggest dreams for the future. ✨✨

11/14/2021

I love fall and everything that it signals.

When I was a kid, fall meant back to school and Halloween.

As an adult, I have to admit that I love the early nights. I love staying in and journaling, making a fire and doing a puzzle. When you start winding down around sunset, it’s easy to go to bed early—wake up and feel the best you’ve felt all year. 🍁

11/11/2021

The view from the deck this week. Fall colors are going off! It’s a nest of yellow around Hidden Owl. Right now, temps are just starting to dip.

I don’t know where you live, but for me, Florida is home. There, we don’t really have autumn. We definitely don’t have leaves changing color to this extent.

Pausing to witness the change that is fall is so many things. It’s a great marker of time. Bigger than that, it’s nostalgia—a reminder of all the good things of past Novembers. This week while I’ve been on the deck, I’ve thought about college in NY and playing ultimate frisbee in a field surrounded by maples and oaks. Going back even more, thinking about grade school and bringing in pumpkin donuts from the local farm store.

Being up here is also the chance to make new memories. Picking up apples and pies at in Sevierville. Or a trip to for cider, pastries, candies and other goodies. If you want to get outside, at you can pick your apples and other produce. Lots of ways to make memories with you and yours.

For me, I was just thinking back to how many friends have already been up to stay at the cabin. I like how easy it is to slow down and take time for simple pleasures, like making a pie or a putting together a puzzle—and make new memories all the while.

11/05/2021

We did the in June and we loved it! Great views of the Smokies, including seeing all the way to . But I wonder how great this is right now with the leaves going off! Anybody been recently?

10/28/2021

Every winter, I used to visit my grandparents. Of all the things we did together, my favorite thing was just being in the kitchen while Grandma Liz cooked. She was always whipping up cookies or prepping dinner ahead. Come 5:00 in the evening, my grandpa would mix cocktails for whoever was around—my parents, maybe some cousins. My grandparents always drank exactly one Crazy OJ cocktail before dinner, signaling to them that their day was done.

The kitchen was the spot that brought us together, with family spilling out into the dining room. And it’s like that here at the cabin. Come dusk, there’s always something happening in the kitchen, even if it’s just unboxing a pizza from , aka Pizza at the Cove. Whatever’s going on in the kitchen, it’s often the focus of peeps on the bar stools and if it smells good enough, the people in the living room also. That’s what’s great about a big space like this. Generations or a big group of friends can come together. Everyone can do their own thing, but at the end of the day, we’re all just one big happy family.
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10/26/2021

Why does it seem that when we’re home that there’s never enough time to catch up on reading? Every time I sit down with a book, either the phone rings with someone reminding me about a deadline or the dryer buzzes, announcing it’s folding time. The books stay unread.

I have to admit: One of the things I love most about time away from home is reading. Having a quiet setting. Maybe a fire going. At the cabin, I’ve got a few favorite spots for turning pages. The hot tub is number one. Ours is covered, so even if it’s raining or snowing, you and your book and your coffee or wine stay protected from the elements.

The last few good books I read: One was the pick, ‘We Were Never Here.’ Did you read that this summer or fall? Right now, I’m reading ‘Wayward’ by Dana Spiotta about a woman who throws herself into fixing up a home of her own. It’s a story I can definitely relate to!

10/21/2021

Start planning your next family getaway. Click here to book now 🗓

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/45557387?source_impression_id=p3_1634841826_aLGheEF1Q%2B6njYj3&guests=1&adults=1

10/19/2021

I’m just going to say it: I think hiking with my girlfriends is an entirely different experience than hiking with a guy. Normally, I go hiking with my guy friends. Almost without exception, they feel this need to see what’s ahead and they pick up pace and then I’m left hiking solo for three hours. Yes, I’m not a fast biker. But still... Does this only happen to me?

I’ve been at the cabin with a few different groups of girlfriends now and we’ve done a bunch of hikes, and we chatted the whole way. Sure, you could fall back and have silence if you wanted. But it’s so nice to talk and share while on the trail. To discover stuff together and laugh and share reactions. To be in it together. I gotta say, I love bonding over long conversations, and I especially love it when that’s happening alongside waterfalls, fall foliage, rivers and epic mountain views.

10/14/2021

I don’t know about you, but I love daydreaming. At home, it happens a lot when I’m washing dishes, staring at my front lawn and the joggers and walkers going by every morning and evening.

At the cabin, this table is the spot. Yeah, we have our meals here. But in between the lasagnas and the roasted chickens, my friends and I bring our laptops here and daydream. We work, yes. We’re all pretty much always under deadline (and how nice is it that I can stay on top of work and my editors don’t even know I’m away unless they look at my Insta) but we also always make time to enjoy the view, getting lost in the green on green and green. To breathe and slow down enough to know that it’s only a matter of time before a parade of creative thoughts pops up.

10/12/2021

This past year has been a lot. For me, I can tell because I never sleep in past 7 a.m. My anxious thoughts wake me up earlier than my tired body would like.

At the cabin, it’s different. I sleep in till 9 and even then, I don’t feel pressed to do much. Most of the time I just make coffee, grab a pastry and climb back in bed before deciding what to do—hike, wander Gatlinburg, go for a lazy brunch.

I think my favorite thing is my that my watch actually tells me when I’m caught up on sleep. I’m a runner, and I have the Garmin 245. This thing js magic in that it tracks my body battery. Like, it literally knows how drained I am of energy and when I am recharged. After one night of sleep at the cabin, I’m usually back up to 87. Decent. Two nights at the cabin is all it takes for me to be well rested, back at 100 percent.

Don’t ask me how the watch tracks this as I have absolutely no idea. What I do know is that it feels 1000% accurate.

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09/15/2021

07/25/2021