About Blackberry Mountain
Blackberry Mountain occupies a secluded stretch of Tennessee foothills near Walland, a quiet community close to Townsend on the less-trafficked western edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It operates as an ultra-luxury, all-inclusive resort — not a conventional cabin rental company in the typical Smokies sense — with a portfolio of 40-plus private cabins, cottages, and homes spread across the mountain property.
What Kind of Place This Is
The distinction matters before you start planning. Blackberry Mountain is a destination resort first. You're not renting a standalone cabin from a property management list; you're booking into an all-inclusive experience where lodging, dining, guided activities, and wellness programming are woven together as one package. Nightly rates reflect that — research puts the ultra-luxury tier here at several thousand dollars per night for some configurations. That positions it alongside a handful of Appalachian properties that operate at the level of high-end destination retreats rather than the Smokies' more typical cabin-rental market.
Its sister property, The Inn at Blackberry Farm, sits nearby in Walland and takes a more traditional country-estate approach centered on culinary excellence and refined hospitality. Blackberry Mountain skews younger in spirit: the emphasis is on adventure, fitness, modern design, and bespoke outdoor experiences alongside the gourmet dining and attentive service you'd expect at this price tier.
The Properties
The 40-plus accommodations span cabins, cottages, and private homes — all on the mountain property and all offering mountain views. The range allows for both intimate stays and larger-group bookings, with private structures rather than hotel-style rooms. That private-home format is a genuine differentiator at the luxury end of the market: you get the seclusion of a cabin stay with resort services brought to you, rather than a suite in a centralized lodge building.
The design sensibility leans modern rather than the rustic-chic aesthetic common elsewhere in the Smokies. Expect clean lines, quality finishes, and outdoor spaces engineered to frame the ridgeline views. The mountain setting at this elevation on the quieter Townsend side of the park means you're not dealing with the strip-commercial surroundings that bracket properties closer to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge.
Adventure and Wellness Programming
The resort's identity is organized around guided outdoor activity and holistic well-being. This isn't a passive "relax in a hot tub" proposition, though that option exists. The all-inclusive model funds a curated activity menu: guided hikes, outdoor fitness programming, and a range of adventure experiences that take advantage of direct access to the quieter western side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
That park adjacency is a real asset. The Townsend/Walland corridor connects to GSMNP via the Foothills Parkway and the Townsend entrance, which sees a fraction of the vehicle traffic that backs up at Sugarlands near Gatlinburg or Newfound Gap on busy weekends. Trails into Cades Cove, the Abrams Falls area, and the Tremont corridor are all accessible from this side of the park without the queuing that defines a peak-season visit from the eastern entrances.
The wellness component runs alongside the adventure programming — spa services and holistic well-being are part of the package, giving guests the option to build a stay around recovery and restoration as much as high-output activity.
Dining
Culinary quality is central to the Blackberry Mountain experience, as it is across the Blackberry brand. The all-inclusive format includes gourmet dining, and the resort's approach emphasizes the kind of food-and-place integration that defines the best mountain lodge properties. The research describes it as culinary excellence within a setting focused on bespoke experiences — meaning the dining isn't an afterthought or a convenience, but a designed part of why guests choose this property over the competition.
No specific restaurant names or menus are available to describe here, but the Blackberry Farm lineage gives useful context: that sister property is widely considered one of the most celebrated culinary destinations in Appalachia, and Blackberry Mountain draws on the same ownership and hospitality philosophy.
Location: The Walland/Townsend Side
Walland sits about 30 miles southwest of Gatlinburg by road and roughly 25 miles from Pigeon Forge — a meaningful separation from the commercial corridors that define those two towns. Townsend brands itself "the peaceful side of the Smokies," and the area earns it: traffic is lighter, development is lower-density, and the surrounding farmland and foothills feel genuinely remote without requiring a long drive on difficult mountain roads.
For guests whose Smokies itinerary centers on GSMNP rather than the waterpark-and-outlet-mall circuit, this location is a strong fit. The park's western entrance at Townsend puts you inside GSMNP boundaries within minutes, with quick access to Cades Cove (one of the park's most visited areas for wildlife and historic structures) and less-crowded trailheads that serve the same ridgelines accessible from the Gatlinburg side.
The tradeoff is distance from Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge attractions, though that distance is intentional for many Blackberry Mountain guests. If mixing resort nights with day trips to Dollywood or the Gatlinburg Parkway is part of your plan, build in the drive time.
Who Books Here and What to Expect
Blackberry Mountain draws travelers for whom the Smokies region is incidental to the resort experience itself — guests who want a mountain setting for an all-inclusive luxury retreat rather than a base camp for independent park exploration at a moderate budget. The property makes most sense for couples or groups willing to spend at the high end in exchange for having logistics, dining, and programming handled in full.
It's also a reasonable option for multi-generational groups or corporate retreats where the private-home format (rather than adjacent hotel rooms) gives families or colleagues room to spread out while sharing a unified experience. The 40-plus property count means the resort can accommodate groups of varying sizes without the all-or-nothing constraint of booking a single large lodge.
Budget-conscious Smokies visitors will find the nightly rate far outside the range of typical cabin rentals in the region. The broader cabin-rental market around Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Wears Valley covers properties from under $150 per night up through mid-range luxury, with dozens of companies managing hundreds of individual cabins. Blackberry Mountain operates above that market, closer to boutique resort pricing.
If you're comparing it to anything locally, the nearest analog is The Inn at Blackberry Farm — same ownership, same Walland setting, same commitment to an all-inclusive luxury experience, but with a more traditional country-estate character. Choosing between the two comes down to whether you want the adventure and modern-design emphasis of the Mountain or the culinary-and-wine refinement of the Farm.