Still the snowcap on Mt. LeConte, still the cabin fever. So head downtown for a walk-around.

Gatlinburg on a winter weekday can be slow, with few tourists on the Parkway promenade. The wishing well is frozen, and hardly a brave soul on the chair lift. The ticky-tack gaudiness of the Parkway is on stark display, without the swells of walkers and gawkers to soften it.

Even the taffy-making machine sits idle, and the pancakes wait. It’s a quiet time in a resort town. A time to walk around and take it in slowly, really look at it. Just a few blocks south is the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and if you need a refuge, there it is, all year round.