Following a three-year absence, the Mountain Life Festival will return 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Mountain Farm Museum in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Celebrate the millions of acres of public lands covering Western North Carolina during National Public Lands Day Saturday, Sept. 23.

After a monthlong closure enacted when a bear scratched a park visitor, Rich Mountain Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has reopened.

Late last month, I was lucky enough to catch a special musical performance in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

According to the recently released results of the National Park Service’s newest peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis, in 2022 North Carolina was yet again home to the nation’s two top parks for visitor spending — the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Maintenance crews will implement temporary, single-lane closures along the northbound and southbound Spur through Aug. 17 and again Aug. 21-24.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials welcomed two new members to the Park Management Team.

 Rich Mountain Road in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is closed to all traffic until further notice after a bear scratched a visitor over the weekend.

When new fees went into effect  in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park March 1, park managers were expecting limited revenues and limited compliance during their inaugural year enforcing the Smokies’ first-ever parking fee. But four months in, both metrics are coming in higher than anticipated. 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is using nearly $19 million in funding from the Great American Outdoors Act to reconstruct Lakeview Drive in Bryson City and repair Heintooga Ridge Road on the Haywood/Swain county line this summer.