Tag Archives: Great Smoky Mountains

Friends of the Smokies raised $27,000 for Great Smoky Mountains National Park on #GivingTuesday, a globally-recognized day inspiring people to celebrate giving back by donating to nonprofit organizations in their communities. $17,000 in donations received by Friends of the Smokies on December 1, 2015 were met with $10,000 in matching funds provided by Patagonia and Home Federal Bank. “We are ...

Laurel Rematore, executive director of Mesa Verde Museum Association in Colorado since 2008 and director of membership and development at Yosemite Association prior to that, has been named to take over the helm at Great Smoky Mountains Association. Rematore steps in to the leadership role at GSMA as its current executive director, Terry Maddox, is set to retire at year’s ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park invites visitors to join them for ranger-led hikes across the park on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015. Hikes will be offered in the Cataloochee, Elkmont, and Cades Cove areas of the park providing an outstanding opportunity for people of all ages to #OptOutside and enjoy the park. Rangers, park volunteers, and Friends of the Smokies staff ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park welcomed 1,370,640 visitors in October 2015, exceeding 2014’s mark of 1,303,640. This year’s visitation makes 2015 the second highest October visitation in the park’s history. Only October 1987 saw more visitors. October is traditionally the second busiest month of the year for the national park, driven by visitors coming to see the park’s fall foliage. ...

A 60-year-old man will run 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail in four days, carrying a 25-pound backpack containing all his survival provisions, to raise money for veterans. Steve Holmes of Millington, Mich. started the Great Smoky Mountains 100-mile Run along the Appalachian Trail today, Nov. 6, 2015, at the Garenflo Gap marker in North Carolina with a goal of ...

Mark calendars for the 3rd annual Gran Fondo Asheville, a fun and festive ride on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Road cyclists will take in the natural beauty of Western North Carolina as they cruise along a well-marked course with the option to push themselves for brief timed periods, competing to win. With the event being held two months earlier than ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash was presented with a $19,000 gift from the Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited as part of their continuing efforts to support the park’s fisheries program. The donation included two checks in the amount of $15,000 and another for $4,000 raised by the Little River Chapter at the 2015 Troutfest Banquet. The ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will host several events for Bat Week, Oct. 25 – 31, 2015 to highlight the important role bats play in our ecosystem. Park rangers invite the public to visit bat information stations at Oconaluftee Visitor Center in North Carolina and Sugarlands Visitor Center in Tennessee from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30. Bats ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park wildlife biologists remind the public to allow bears to forage undisturbed on natural foods during this critical feeding period before winter hibernation. Bears depend on fall foods such as acorns and grapes to store fat reserves that enable them to survive winter. This year, these foods in the park are extremely rare leading bears to ...

Visitation to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is up 5.5 percent through September 2015. Over 8 million visitors have come to the park so far this year. The increase has led to record months of visitation in both May and September with visitation surpassing 1 million visitors during each month. In September, the park welcomed 1,081,773 visitors, the most ever ...