Ticket, please: Smokies to explore paid parking, shuttle service as crowd control tools
As visitor use in the already-crowded Great Smoky Mountains National Park continues to climb, for the first time ever the park will try out paid trailhead reservations as a potential answer to overcrowding.
Pilot program will bring shuttles, paid parking to Laurel Falls
In a virtual public meeting this evening, Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials unveiled a pilot plan to manage congestion at Laurel Falls Trail.
Let’s talk about all the visitors
In the middle of the tourism season, is there any way to politely state the obvious: this region is being overrun by visitors.
Proceed with caution: Data details deaths in national parks
On May 21, 2000, a beloved Sevier County elementary school teacher named Glenda Ann Bradley took a walk on the Little River Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with her ex-husband Ralph Hill. Both Hill and Bradley, 50, were experienced hikers, so when Hill went off-trail to fish, Bradley did some solo hiking while she waited for him.
Smokies, Parkway spared drop in park visitor spending
Visitor spending in national park communities during 2020 was just over two-thirds the amount spent in 2019, but parks in Western North Carolina were spared that drop, according to a new report from the National Park Service. Together, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway accounted for more than 10% of visits to national park units in 2020.
Living in bearadise: Encounters highlight need for human responsibility in bear country
After flying into town and renting a car for their Memorial Day Weekend visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, three adults visited Cades Cove on Saturday, May 29.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has an amazing array of mini-ecosystems within its borders — from peaks over 6,000 feet to low valleys, from moist densely forested coves to dry meadows. A walk from mountain base to peak compares with traveling 1,250 miles north. Several resident plants and animals live only in the Smokies.
An ounce of prevention: Stopping emergencies before they start
For every 116,732 people visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, one experiences an emergency and calls the park’s Search and Rescue Team for help. As the park’s popularity increases, so does the urgency of figuring out how to weaken that ratio.
WNC claims two of 2020’s three most visited National Park units
Despite the pandemic — or perhaps because of it — Western North Carolina was home to two of the nation’s three most visited National Park Service units in 2020.
New bee species found in the Great Smokies
By Jonathan Austin • Contributing writer | A recently documented bee species has been identified living in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Will Kuhn, director of science and research at Discover Life in America, said the bee, Epeolus inornatus, was found during two observations off Baskins Creek Trail, located just outside Gatlinburg.
