Tag Archives: hiking

On August 20, Friends of the Smokies hosts the 21st annual Friends Across the Mountains Telethon to benefit Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The event has a long history as the only telethon for a national park, and has raised more than $3 million. “As we celebrate the 99th year of the National Park Service and look ahead to its centennial in 2016, ...

Visitation to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is up eight percent through the first six months of 2015. Between January and June over 4.3 million visitors have enjoyed the nation’s most visited national park. In May 2015 alone over 1 million visitors entered the park, the most ever for May since the National Park Service began tracking monthly visitation in ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced the temporary closure of three trail sections in the lower Forney Creek Trail area for a trail rehabilitation project that will include work on the Lakeshore, White Oak Branch, and Forney Creek trails. Mechanized equipment will be used to significantly improve the condition and sustainability of these trails. The project will include re-establishing ...

Trails, campsites and a shelter in the Hazel Creek area reopened today, after being closed since the bear attack nearly a month ago. Officials with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park announced Thursday, July 2, 2015, that Hazel Creek Trail, Jenkins Ridge Trail, Bone Valley Trail, Cold Spring Gap Trail, Derrick Knob Shelter, and backcountry campsites 82, 83, 84, 85, ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials reopened the Cosby entrance road, campground, and picnic area this morning. The area has been closed due to flood damage since June 22, 2015 when flash flooding along Rock Creek spilled over the banks. Park maintenance crews cleared rocks and debris from the roadway and repaired over 1,000 feet of road shoulders where the ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced the temporary closure of the Cosby entrance road due to flood damage. On June 22, 2015 at approximately 4 p.m., flash flooding along Rock Creek spilled over the banks damaging road shoulders along 1,500 linear feet of the Cosby entrance road. Underground electric and phone lines were exposed along most of the road ...

Ticks “tick off” just about everyone. They are known carriers of disease, most notably in Tennessee, Ehrlichiosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but many are becoming increasingly concerned about Lyme disease as well. Researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have practical advice for reducing your risk — and the risk to your children and pets — of ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials received DNA results from the bear attack occurring at backcountry campsite 84 where a 16-year old male from Ohio was seriously injured by a bear on June 6, 2015. Immediately following the report of the attack, rangers and wildlife biologists implemented an action plan that included clearing the Hazel Creek backcountry area of hikers ...

Never been hiking with your kids? Great Smoky Mountains National Park is presenting a series of programs this summer to help introduce families to hiking in the park. These ranger led programs will give you advice on how to prepare for a hike, what to take, what to watch out for, and some fun activities that you can do with ...

Park rangers have found a mother and son who became lost and spent the night in the park Sunday. Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers found two missing hikers, a woman and her son from Fond Du Lac, Wis., who had been reported being lost in the park on Sunday, June 7, 2015. Christy Barns, 40, and her son, Casey, ...