Dispatches From the Parks: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The intended centerpiece of my trip to the Appalachian region last month was Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Great Smokys are not only a World Heritage Site internationally renowned for its biological diversity, but also the most visited national park in the United States of America. This mix was on full display during the time I spent there where I saw so many beautiful bits of nature in between frustrating experiences involving poor infrastructure, overcrowding and poor management strategies to deal with these issues.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park preserves parts of the Blue Ridge Mountain ecosystem, and its natural range is vast. In a quick drive you can go from snow covered mountain peaks to an almost rainforest like ecosystem where rivers are plentiful and the weather is much warmer. The park is world renowned for its variety of plant and salamander species. Established in 1926 by an act of Congress, the park now regularly ranks as the most visited national park and one of the top five most visited national park sites in the country.
Most of my trip was contained to the Newfound Gap Road district of the park. Newfound Gap Road is the road that journeys through the center of the park from North Carolina to Tennessee. Not all of that was by design as I intended to go to other districts of the park such as Cades Cove and Balsam Mountain but ran into issues. For instance, I camped one night at Cades Cove Campground (a cramped but beautiful area with some of the best amenities in the park) but didn’t bother actually venturing into the Cades Cove district just beyond the campground because traffic was at a standstill anytime I looked towards the road. Even getting to the rangers office to get my already reserved campground pass was a hassle as I attempted to work my way through waves of automobiles and people. My attempt to get to Balsam Mountain was prematurely aborted by construction being active on most of the area’s trails. That was odd because I arrived during the peak fall foliage season, which is one of the busiest weeks of the year for the park. To make matters worse, the park’s main solution to these problems was a “parking fee” that was established last year in which if you want to park your car anywhere in the national park for longer than 15 minutes you need to pay a fee. My national park pass (one of my favorite purchases annually because I end up saving money in entrance fees almost every year with it) is null and void for this parking fee as the park pass only covers entrance fees and not parking fees. The sad thing about all of this is that the park seems to have chosen this method instead of an entrance fee in order to preserve its status as one of the last popular national parks without an entrance fee. It’s a designation that isn’t worth the trouble that it’s now causing nor will 99.9% of the public care about this odd reasoning.
Now with all of my issues with the park out of the way it’s time to get to the good stuff. I was able to stay overnight in the park for most of my time here as I stayed at two of the park’s campgrounds: Smokemount and Cades Cove. Smokemount is located at the North Carolina end of the park just a few minutes drive away from the park entrance. Cades Cove is located in the middle of the park at the entryway to the Cades Cove district. Both campgrounds are organized in a fashion that tries to fit in as many people as possible into the area. Privacy isn’t something to expect here, but the amenities are quite nice. The bathrooms are clean and camp stores are within walking distance (the Cades Cove one even sells ice cream). The best part about both campgrounds (and this is the case with all of the campgrounds in the park) is that they feature some of the best nature trails I’ve ever hiked. Nature trails tend to be short and sweet in order to cater to vast amounts of age groups and skill sets, but the ones in Great Smoky Mountains have a decent amount elevation gain so you can get a good workout in.
Beyond the campgrounds, there are ample opportunities for hiking. The trails here tend to fall into two types of categories: waterfall hikes and mountain hikes. This may seem repetitive but there is quite the diversity even within these two groups. For instance, Laurel Falls Trail is a mostly paved and short trail to a scenic but popular waterfall while Rainbow Falls Trail is a much more remote ascent to a large waterfall that takes you through a bear filled forest. The diversity is there for the mountain hikes to as you can do a shorter hike like Andrews Bald Trail where the highlight is seeing the plant life change drastically as you go up and down in elevation compared to a longer hike like Charlies Bunion by the Appalachian Trail where the highlight is the expansive views of the surrounding areas.
While I did miss a lot of the park due to the already mentioned issues, I was able to visit two of the less visited districts of the park: Deep Creek and Cataloochee. Deep Creek is another example of the waterfall and river filled valleys of the rest of the Great Smokys. The Deep Creek Loop Trail was actually one of my favorite hikes in the park as it had a more relaxed feel to it and had three different waterfalls to enjoy. Cataloochee is probably one of the most unique districts in the park. It feels the most isolated and has the best opportunities for wildlife in the park. When I went there for sunrise I was able to watch a herd of elk hanging out right by the main road through the district.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is in desperate need of a new management plan because if managed properly more people will be able to enjoy this national treasure.
