National Park News

Officials at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in conjunction with the Friends of the Smokies and the Great Smoky Mountain Association are announcing a new opportunity to experience the Smokies.

According to a recently-released National Park Service (NPS) study, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is not only the nation’s most visited national park, it also tops the 397 national park units in visitor spending.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park got an early Holiday gift on December 14, when the Friends of the Smokies officially transferred 20 acres of new land to be added to the Park.

On Saturday, December 17, Great Smoky Mountains National Park will host a Holiday Homecoming at the new Oconaluftee Visitor Center. Park staff and volunteers will provide hands-on demonstrations of traditional crafts from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park announced the 36th annual Festival of Christmas Past celebration scheduled on Saturday, December 10, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Sugarlands Visitor Center.

The Park announced plans to close the 11-mile Cades Cove Loop Road to all vehicular traffic on Wednesday, November 30, and to impose a partial closure on Thursday, December 1 for hemlock woolly adelgid spray operations.

Superintendent Dale Ditmanson announced the approval of a Finding of No Significant Impact of the Environmental Assessment on a proposed plan for managing a permanent herd of elk in the Park.

Fire managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park plan to conduct a series of prescribed burns of fields in Cades Cove on Tuesday through Friday, November 7-10 if weather conditions permit.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials invite the public to attend two special programs held at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center complex on Saturday, October 15, and Monday, October 17.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will offer a 2 ½-hour stargazing program in Cades Cove on September 24 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in cooperation with the Smoky Mountains Astronomical Society.

On Saturday, September 24, Great Smoky Mountains National Park will celebrate National Public Lands Day by hosting several volunteer projects in a unified effort with many public lands across the country.

The park is holding two open houses to discuss changes the park is considering in the way it manages its backcountry campsite reservation. The open houses are set for Tuesday, August 16 and Thursday, August 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Gunter Fork Trail between the Camel Gap Trail and the Balsam Mountain Trail is closed until further notice due to three landslides.

The second drowning in the park this summer occurred at the Sinks on Saturday, July 30th.

Managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are considering some changes in the process by which backpackers make reservations for overnight camping at the Park’s nearly 100 backcountry sites and shelters.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has announced that its current policy to prohibit the transportation of firewood from federal and state quarantined areas into the park has been tightened to include several neighboring counties in Tennessee. The affected areas are Anderson, Blount, Grainger, Knox, Loudon, and Union counties.

In conjunction with a two-year DUI prevention program, Great Smoky Mountains National Park recently conducted special law enforcement operations on the Park’s roadways during a 2-week period that resulted in seven DUI arrests and issuance of 36 citations and 66 warnings of various nature.

Managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are inviting comments on an Environmental Assessment which lays out the impacts of a proposed new storage facility which will preserve 422,000 historical artifacts and 450,000 archival records.

Managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are inviting comments on an Environmental Assessment which lays out the impacts of a proposed new storage facility which will preserve 422,000 historical artifacts and 450,000 archival records.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have announced a decision to transition backcountry campsites 84 and 85, along the Hazel Creek Trail in North Carolina, from non-reservation campsites to reservation-only. This change takes effect on August 1, 2011.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have announced a decision to transition backcountry campsites 84 and 85, along the Hazel Creek Trail in North Carolina, from non-reservation campsites to reservation-only. This change takes effect on August 1, 2011.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is starting an acoustic old time jam session every third Saturday of the month starting July 16 at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, NC, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is starting an acoustic old time jam session every third Saturday of the month starting July 16 at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, NC, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

A drowning victim was recovered from Great Smoky Mountains National Park today in a section of the Little River at the Townsend Wye, a popular day use area in Blount County.

A drowning victim was recovered from Great Smoky Mountains National Park today in a section of the Little River at the Townsend Wye, a popular day use area in Blount County.

Rangers have announced plans to conduct sobriety checkpoints and ramp up traffic patrols, in conjunction with a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The park has set a two-day open house at Elkmont to showcase the newly-restored Appalachian Clubhouse. The first day, Saturday, June 25, is set aside for the original residents of Elkmont and on Sunday, June 26, the general public is invited to attend.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is offering special programs for youth to participate in science activities this summer.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is offering special programs for youth to participate in science activities this summer.

Two areas will be closed temporarily this week to install new precast concrete public restrooms (vault toilets) at popular trailheads in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.