I'm not real familiar with the area so if we stayed in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, it's close to the Smoky Mountains because I was looking at camping but i'm not sure I want to camp with bears!

We once had a skunk outside our tent and we were trapped inside for about an hour....that's enough for me and
my DH had to use the rest room....
well threat of being skunked will bring that out in anyone

we had a skunk in our campsite once and husband ran to the car and left
me alone to get the kids out of the tent

he still hasn't lived that one down
i felt the same way about the bears but have camped 2x there when they had the bear warning signs up and were having increased bear activity and didn't have a problem...it made me really nervous the first time as the site beside us had tons of litter, pop cans etc( and a tiny baby who slept in the pop-up right above their stack of garbage

) and so if there was ever going to be a bear it probably would have been then..some guy actually said there had been a bear in the camp ground that night but we didn't see or hear anything( but rangers running around the next am)
however not to be scary and i didn't actually
see it but once ( we were in a camper at the elkmont camp ground ) i opened the door after dark to get a pop bottle we left outside by mistake and something growled a really deep loud growl at me...so i rapidly closed the door and the bottle was no longer around the next morning

so bear or not, don't know, could have been a chipmunk with bad bronchitis?

personally i don't do tents in bear areas...i stay awake enough camping worrying about the crazed ax murders i'm sure are creeping into the campground while i lay there listening to hubby snore
you can also stay in cherokee nc although we don't think we have been there since the casino opened i don't know how much it's changed but there are some interesting attractions ( ie a Cherokee village, museum) there
http://www.cherokee-nc.com/