A lot of the trail work in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is done by volunteers. There is another service opportunity June 1. It is the 21st National Trails Day and volunteers are needed to help maintain the Appalachian Trail. Volunteers need sturdy shoes, adequate drinking water and will need to pack a lunch. At the end of the day, volunteers will be treated to...
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The Appalachian Trail straddles the Tennessee/North Carolina state line for hundreds of miles. A particularly scenic day hike on the AT is the four mile stretch from Newfound Gap to Charlies Bunion, a remote and rugged outcropping that sits on the ridge between the states. Along this sharp ridge you will pass magnificent views of the Carolina Smokies to the southeast,...
Learn MoreA book that aims to make hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park fun and educational for kids, Scavenger Hike Adventures by Kat and John Lafevre, is on Smokies visitor center bookshelves now. The book features 13 hikes, seven are relatively easy, three are moderate and three are extreme. All are set up like scavenger hunts and lead to discoveries within the...
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to help staff the visitor information center at Clingmans Dome through November 30. The visitor information center at Clingmans Dome sits at an elevation of 6,300 feet and is a point source of information for the national park and the high elevation spruce fir ecosystem, in particular. Volunteers are needed to...
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A day of hikes, lectures and cupcakes is planned to celebrate Great Smoky Mountains Association’s 60th anniversary on Saturday, June 22, at Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, N.C. GSMA’s legacy of providing financial support to Great Smoky Mountains National Park began in 1953 with a slightly longer name (Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association) and a...
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The overlook on U.S. Highway 129 was filled to capacity with motorcyclists from Texas, Florida and Louisiana. They had pulled off the Tail of the Dragon, an 11-mile stretch of highway in Blount County famous for its scenery and curves, and now they were taking photos. With the Cherokee National Forest on one side of the road and Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the...
Learn MoreIt’s taken two years of hard work, but two trails that were nearly destroyed by an EF4 tornado are finally reopened in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In April 2011, that giant storm downed thousands of trees in the western end of the park, making 50 miles of trails impassable, including Ace Gap, Beard Cane, Hatcher Mountain, Little Bottoms, Rabbit Creek,...
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They left Springer Mountain, Ga., on March 17, and for the first two weeks, the weather was miserable in ways they never imagined. During their first full day on the Appalachian Trail, they hiked into a severe thunderstorm that brought hail and tornado warnings. Nighttime temperatures dipped into the teens, and as they crossed the Georgia-North Carolina line, they...
Learn MoreTwo popular trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park are going to be closed for a while so crews can repair damage caused by flooding this winter. In North Carolina, crews will repair a slide area along Noland Creek Trail. To make the needed repairs, the trail will be closed to all hiker and horse use from April 22 – May 2 from the trailhead to Backcountry Campsite...
Learn MoreThe entire Newfound Gap Road across Great Smoky Mountains National Park reopened today between Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and Cherokee, North Carolina, a month ahead of schedule. The road, the only one that crosses the park, was severed by a landslide back on January 16. But at 10 a.m. EST today the entire route was officially reopened. Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson,...
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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to assist park visitors by roving the Oconaluftee River Trail, Mountain Farm Museum and fields along Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road). The volunteer positions will be available from now through November 9, 2013. These volunteers will provide information regarding various park regulations including littering,...
Learn MoreRepairs to U.S. 441 are nearing completion. A football-field-sized portion of U.S. 441, which runs through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was completely washed away in January after days of heavy rain resulted in a landslide. The missing chunk of roadway forced the National Park Service to close the road that serves as a main tourism artery to the Cherokee...
Learn MoreOfficials at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are today announcing that a zip line will be installed over the site of the slide reconstruction of US Highway 441 above Cherokee, North Carolina. They said that there has been tremendous interest in viewing the activity at the site. Beginning Monday April 1 the current road blocks at Smokemont on the North Carolina...
Learn MoreA new report from Colorado State University confirms that air quality in our most-visited national park is measurably better, thanks to the Clean Air Act. While more work still needs to be done to improve air quality around the country, the new emissions and visibility measurements published last week by the university’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the...
Learn MorePhase 1 of the reconstruction of the Newfound Gap Road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park is ramping down, making it possible for the actual rebuilding of the road to get under way. If all goes as planned, you’ll be able to cross Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee on the Newfound Gap Road by mid-May, the date set for...
Learn MoreGreat Smoky Mountains National Park has announced that Clingmans Dome Road, a popular high elevation visitor destination, will open to traffic as weather conditions allow as early as February 15. The road will continue to be monitored for hazardous conditions throughout the remainder of the winter season, and will still be subject to closure pending inclement weather....
Learn MoreGreat Smoky Mountains National Park, which already has lost its main road to a rain-induced landslide, continues to suffer from torrential rains that are washing out other roads. Even the 70-foot-long foot bridge along the popular Chimney Tops Trail has been knocked out by the rains. Flooding last week has led to the temporary closure of sections of gravel roads within...
Learn MoreGreat Smoky Mountains National Park and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians hope some financial incentives, and disincentives, will speed repairs to the Newfound Gap Road, which was severed by a landslide in January. The two are pooling resources to offer an incentive of $18,000 per day to the selected contractor for each day of completion prior to May 15, up to a...
Learn MoreThe Great Smoky Mountains National Park is beginning a new program that allows nearby residents, business people, teachers and community members to see the everyday workings of the national park. Participants will attend five full day sessions at a variety of locations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, accompanying park employees in activities that may include...
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A Knoxville-based hiking club has earned national recognition for making big improvements to the backcountry trail shelters in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Smoky Mountains Hiking Club’s backcountry shelter crew recently received the 2012 Southeast Regional George B. Hartzog Jr. Award for outstanding volunteer service based on the...
Learn MoreThe expansive views of the Southern Appalachian Mountains from the summit of Hemphill Bald are enough to make anyone want to plop down in the tall grass and spend the day watching the shadows of clouds flow across the landscape. Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies like a pearl on the string of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the thread running down the spine...
Learn MoreGreat Smoky Mountains National Park officials have been working with the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) to assess damage to Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) as a result of a January 16 landslide. The FHWA has completed their field survey work, and are now in the initial stage of preparation work to reconstruct the 200 linear feet of road. This first phase of work...
Learn MoreThe first assessment of the landslide which occurred in Great Smoky Mountains National Park along Newfound Gap Road in North Carolina shows that the landslide is approximately 90,000 cubic yards of material or 350-400 feet. It is around the length of a football field and 45-50 feet deep. The slide is still active and an assessment team, made up of Park Staff and Federal...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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