Smokey Mountain begginer friendly rock climbing crags

I am going to be visiting some friends in the area who are only gym climbers but would love to get their first outdoors experience. I'm coming from the PNW and have a lot of outdoor experience. Looking for an area where I can either lead up a pitch and turn it into a top rope set up or hike around and rap down so that I can top rope some begginer friends 5.7 and under routes would be ideal any advice for where to head to would be greatly appreciated!

Where will you be?  Are you asking about the NP specifically?  Or one of the surrounding areas?

Brian Murphey wrote:

Where will you be?  Are you asking about the NP specifically?  Or one of the surrounding areas?

We're going to be in Gatlinburg area. Fine with 1-1.5 hour drive to a decent crag.

Unfortunately...I think in the 1-1.5 hour radius, nothing is going to fit your needs.  Expanding to about the 2 hour range gets you some interesting options though.  

https://carolinaclimbers.org/climbing-areas/little-bearwallow.html

This would be right at 2hr from Gatlinburg and is a great setting for 1st time climbers. 

Ijams crag in Knoxville might be an option for you.

The only beginner crag I know of in the area is a very small one:  Pickens Nose south of Franklin NC.  It has some fun top rope climbs. But that's about it.  Beautiful views, though.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q34ug42iZbipLuwE6

Pickens Nose has a nice setup at the Top Rope Wall for beginners. It's not a great drive to get there from Gatlinburg though. I wouldn't suggest trying there unless you were already in Cherokee for some reason.