Good News From The Great Smoky Mountains National Park
As most of you already know, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park instituted its new parking pass program, Park It Forward, in March of 2023. This is required for anyone staying parked for more than 15 minutes at any site within the national park. The fees are $5 for a daily pass, $15 for a weekly pass, and $40 for a year. What’s the good news from the first year of the program? Let’s find out!
Ten million dollars directly supported the park with these passes. Yep, 10 million! What makes it such a big deal is that it will increase their search and rescue efforts, as well as hiring 25 more park rangers, and adding even more parking spaces at one of the most popular trails in the Smoky Mountains, Laurel Falls Trail. This money has already helped organize the aforementioned Preventative Search and Rescue Team, which is very similar to the ones at Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Parks.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park received considerable feedback on the program, and the overwhelming response was to add more rangers, so this is an extraordinarily good sign for what’s needed to maintain a park that got more than 13 million visitors in 2023.
This is not only good, but great news for the overall health of this beautiful piece of East Tennessee heaven. These plans will continue in the years to come as people continue to visit and support the park. If you’d like to purchase a pass, I recommend you visit the Smokies Life website, go inside Sugarlands Visitor Center—the main entrance from the Gatlinburg side—or any of the 30 kiosks located in any of the visitor center parking lots in the park. These locations also include the Gatlinburg Welcome Center, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, Oconaluftee Visitor Center, Swain County Visitor Center in North Carolina, and Great Smokies Welcome Center in Townsend.
I fully encourage you to get a parking tag, even if you’re just planning on stopping briefly at the overlooks. Please follow your basic rules which include Leave No Trace, the most disobeyed code for visitors. This really grinds my gears seeing the unnecessary trash and writing on historic structures in the park. It’s about as ignorant as bear-feeding. If you do this, please don’t come back. We would like to at least have this place retain its natural beauty without needing precious resources in the process. Leave your gross human behavior at home. We would like it if you could at least appreciate and be respectful as a visitor, no matter where you are from.
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