Tag Archives: hiking

Friends of the Smokies hosts the 22nd annual Friends Across the Mountains Telethon to benefit Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Wednesday night. The event has a long history as the only telethon for a national park, and has raised more than $3.2 million. “Later this week, on August 25, the National Park Service marks 100 years of protecting America’s most special ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash and City of Gatlinburg Mayor Mike Werner invite the public to join them on a hike along the Gatlinburg Trail in the Smokies on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016 at 9 a.m. in honor of the National Park Service Centennial. Hikers should meet in front of Sugarlands Visitor Center to begin the 4-mile, ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced the temporary closure of the Ramsey Cascades Trail due to a damaged foot log caused by a fallen tree that is blocking access along the route. The foot log spans a section of Ramsey Prong which is too swift and deep to allow hikers to safely rock-hop across river. The popular, four-mile trail ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Inventory and Monitoring Branch has partnered with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and the School of Arts at the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, to create a new web application called Species Mapper. Everyone from park managers to school groups can use Species Mapper to explore suitable habitats for more than ...

Several Tennessee Army National Guard Soldiers from the 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion that is now part of Joint Base McGhee-Tyson in Knoxville, Tenn., were awarded the Sikorsky Rescue Award on July 10, for participating in three different lifesaving missions in Great Smoky Mountains National Park earlier this year. The award was established to salute the men and women who endanger ...

Friends of the Smokies has received a grant of $14,000 from REI in support of the Trails Forever program. The funds were made possible through REI’s Asheville and Knoxville locations as part of the 2016 REI Local Grant program, and will be used to continue to fund a full-time trail crew to reconstruct and rehabilitate Alum Cave Trail, one of ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park rangers are leading a variety of summer programs for youth from the Knoxville’s Boys and Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley including Adventure Camps. Youth participating in the camps will spend three days in the Great Smoky Mountains and one day in Cumberland Gap learning about the unparalleled diversity ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park maintenance crews will perform road maintenance along the gravel Balsam Mountain Road on Monday, June 27; Wednesday, June 29; and Wednesday, July 6, 2016 from 6–11:00 a.m. each morning. The work will require a full road closure during these time periods to allow crews to place new gravel on the roadway. The one-way, 15-mile Balsam ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced the temporary closure of Parson Branch Road due to the concentration of hazard trees lining the roadway. The 8-mile, one-way gravel roadway begins in Cades Cove and exits along US Highway 129. Typically the road is opened each season between April and November. Park crews originally delayed opening the road due to a ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has announced that it is participating in Partners in Preservation (PIP), a community-based partnership of American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to raise awareness of the importance of preserving historic places, which is embarking on its first national campaign in the program’s 10-year history. In honor of the National Park Service’s Centennial, ...