38. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

               Welcome back to our blog on the National Park Service!  We are making another stop in one of the “Big 60” National Parks, this time to the most visited National Park in the country, Great Smoky Mountains.

Entrance sign.

BACKGROUND:

               The name ‘Great Smoky Mountains’ derives from the Cherokee, who said the mountains of the southern Appalachians along the North Carolina and Tennessee border looked, “Blue like smoke.”  Being in the eastern portion of the country, the mountains quickly became home to European settlers moving west who carved out homesteads in the valleys.  The mountains were covered with massive forests which gave cover for generations of moonshiners and provided an abundant source of timber for lumber companies.  These companies soon built railways into the mountains to transport timber back to mill sites rather than continuing to float newly cut trees down the narrow streams.  In order to make some extra money, the railways began offering sightseeing tours.  The popularity of these tours and the showcasing of the area’s natural beauty led locals to band together in efforts to save the mountains from mining and logging.  At the same time, the newly formed National Parks Service was looking to expand by forming new National Parks in the east.  A debate began about where to establish the new eastern park, with supporters split between the Shenandoah mountains in Virginia and the Great Smoky Mountains further south.  Remarkably, Congress approved both, starting with the Great Smoky Mountains in 1926.  The problem however was that the federal government was too strapped for cash at first to purchase the necessary property.

Horses graze in the Cades Cove valley.

               Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. lent his family’s vast fortune to the cause as citizens in Tennessee and North Carolina raised more cash through fundraising campaigns.  The formation of the park had a dark side though.  Over four thousand people who called the territory where the park had been established home, were forcibly evicted as the government condemned their land, and only a handful were able to successfully fight the removal.

A former mill, preserved at Cades Cove.  The park preserves many structures left by former residents of the area.

               With the onset of the Great Depression, Great Smoky Mountains became one of epicenters of activity for the Civilian Conservation Corps.  The CCC provided work for thousands of unemployed men during the 1930s, and at Great Smoky Mountains the men of the CCC transformed the rugged mountains into a true National Park, clearing trails, building campsites, roads and visitor centers.  In the post-war era, the popularity of the park increased, and it was recognized by international organizations being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve.

A platform built by the CCC at the Newfound Gap overlook along the Tennessee/North Carolina state line.

               The Great Smoky Mountains are well known for its wildlife, in particular its famous black bears, but is also home to elk, bobcats, many species of birds and rodents, and is notable for its rare synchronous fireflies.  In addition, the park is home to five varied types of forests; spruce-fir, northern hardwood, cove hardwood, hemlock, and pine-and-oak forests.

A view from Route 441 looking down the valley between Sugarlands Mountain and Mount Le Conte.  The gray spot in the lower portion of the photo is another section of Route 441 far below.

THE PARK:

               Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina covering over five-hundred thousand acres in the southern Appalachian Mountains in the rough shape of an elongated oval.  Although the park territory is nearly evenly split north and south between the two states, the park is headquartered in Tennessee.   The Tennessee side is also the more developed area of the park with more facilities and road access.  The park is bounded to the south by Fontana Lake, a reservoir created by a 1940s Tennessee Valley Authority Dam, and the Eastern Cherokee Indiana Reservation, populated by descendants of the Cherokee tribe that managed to evade the Indian removal efforts of the 1830s.

Entrance sign to the Eastern Cherokee Indian Reservation.

               The park has four visitor centers.  The primary visitor center is Sugarlands, located in the north-central area of the park near the town of Gatlinburg which abuts against the park’s northern boundary.  To the west is the Cades Cove visitor center, nestled in a wide valley once home to settlers who farmed the area before being forced off their land in the 1920s.  At the very the center of the park is the Clingmans Dome visitor center, perched near the peak of the tallest mountain in the park.  At the southern edge of the park is the Oconaluftee visitor center, home to the Mountain Farm Museum which showcases how settlers in the area once lived.  Just beyond the Oconaluftee visitor center is the southern entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The parkway runs almost 470 miles north to the southern entrance of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, serving as a long-distance link between the two great eastern National Parks.

The Cades Cove visitor center.

               Road access in the park is somewhat limited.  There are virtually no roads in the park on the North Carolina side, with exception of two rough unpaved roads.  One of these connects the Big Creek and Cataloochee campgrounds on the park’s eastern edge near Interstate 40.  The other is the one-way Balsam Mountain Road which diverts up into the mountains from the Blue Ridge Parkway until winding back to the Oconaluftee visitor center.  The main road that splits the park between east and west is Route 441, which runs up from Gatlinburg between Sugarlands and Le Conte Mountains, crosses over the Newfound Gap on the state line, then straight down alongside the Oconaluftee River to the town of Cherokee.  Splitting off from this road at Newfound Gap is another road which runs to the Clingmans Dome visitor center.  To the north, starting in Gatlinburg is the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, a one lane scenic drive which loops up along the side of Mount Le Conte above the town.  Finally, starting at the Sugarlands visitor center and running west alongside the river of the same name is the Little River Road, built along the former railroad grade used by lumber companies in the early 20^th century.  The road continues to Cades Cove where it forms a single lane drive that loops around the valley.  There is one further scenic drive in the park, the Foothills Parkway.  Intended to follow the line of foothills several miles north of the actual park, the parkway, originally authorized in 1944, still is not complete, with less than half of the parkway built.  Two small sections, one beginning at the far western tip of the park and running to the small town of Walland, the other at the other extreme end of the park connecting the small town of Cosby to Interstate 40 are currently the only finished portions.  A new section of the parkway, running from Walland to Wear Valley near Gatlinburg, is scheduled to finally be completed later this year.

Cars pass through a tunnel along Little River Road.  The road was constructed using the old railroad grade used by lumber companies.

               What Great Smoky Mountains National Park lacks in road access in makes up for in trails.  The mountains are crisscrossed with hundreds of miles of hiking trails, including the king of all hiking trails, the Appalachian Trail.  The famous AT crosses into the park at its southern boundary along Fontana Dam, then up to the peaks following the state line until it exists near Big Creek.  Further trails provide visitors with strenuous hikes to mountain tops and scenic waterfalls.

The Appalachian Trail passes by Newfound Gap tracing along the Tennessee/North Carolina state line.  Note the signpost.  "It's only two-thousand miles to Maine."

               The park has ten developed campgrounds; Cosby, Big Creek, and Cataloochee in the far east, Balsam Mountain near the Blue Ridge Parkway, Smokemont near Oconaluftee visitor center, Deep Creek near Fontana Lake on the park’s southern border, Elkmont (home of the famed synchronous fireflies in the late Spring) is off of the Little River Road, Cades Cove in its namesake valley, Abrams Creek in the far west, and Look Rock along the completed portion of the Foothills Parkway.  There are also numerous primitive backcountry campsites and shelters.  There is only one small lodge at the park, at the summit of Mount Le Conte which can only be reached by foot.

Mt. Le Conte as seen from the Carlos C. Campbell overlook.

TRAVEL TIPS:

               Great Smoky Mountains National Park is open year-round twenty-four hours a day.  The best time to visit is during the summer, when the visitor centers are open later into the evening, all roads are open, and wildlife are more active.  However, summer is the most popular time of year, and as the park is officially the most visited in the country, it is likely to be crowded, particularly along roads, at visitor centers and trail heads.  There are no entrance fees to enter the park.  At developed campgrounds, while there are flush toilets and sinks, there are no showers or waste hook-ups for RVs/trailers.  All backcountry shelters and campgrounds may be used by permit only.  As mentioned above, the Mount Le Conte lodge is only accessible by foot.  A room at the lodge can be reserved in advance, but the conditions are primitive with no electricity or showers.  Cell phone service within the park is almost totally nonexistent, so prepare for any emergencies in advance if you are looking to enter the backcountry.  The developed areas of the park, namely the areas around the visitor centers are as handicapped accessible as possible, however trails and many backcountry locations are not due to the terrain.  Passport stamps can be found at all four visitor centers.

Probably the preferred way for all to see a bear; safely fifty yards away and the bear sitting in a tree.  This photo was taken along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.  The bear was actually about eye-level with the authors, however it was perched at least thirty feet up the tree due to a steep drop in elevation from the edge of the road.

If you are on foot and can see a bear this easily, you're TOO CLOSE.  [Legal disclaimer:  This was a chance encounter with a bear along a roadside.  The authors did not at any time exit the vehicle or attempt to approach the bear.  The bear in question quickly retreated into the forest and the authors drove on.  Federal law prohibits willfully approaching within fifty yards of a bear or attempting to feed a bear.]  This photo was taken along the Cades Cove loop road near the Cades Cove campground.

Visitors are strongly advised to follow all park directions in regard to the proper behavior concerning wild animals, particularly the park’s famous black bears.  The park has taken extensive steps in the last few decades to limit harm to the native bear population caused by human interaction, so we please ask that all visitors follow all park instructions given on avoiding feeding or approaching them.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

A log bridge crosses a small creek in the vicinity of the Cosby campground.

 A view from an overlook above the town of Gatlinburg along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.

Visitors swim at the junction of the Little River and Laurel Creek.

A waterfall known as "The Sinks" along the Little River.  The waterfall is man-made, the result of blasting to clear a log jam on the river.  The waterfall is extremely hazardous and swimming at the location has been banned due several drownings.

The Clingmans Dome observation tower, atop the highest peak in the park.

A view from the Clingmans Dome observation tower looking south.  Fontana Lake, the park's southern boundary can be seen in the distance.

A hiker decided to have a bit of fun with an oddly shaped rock along a trail near the Cosby campground.  For the curious, Sasquatch country is the Pacific Northwest, not the southern Appalachians.

A stream flows downhill beside Route 441.