And you thought the mall was busy.....

[alaponsa]

...the day before Christmas. I live in Atlanta and drove up to the

Great Smokey Mountains National Park (GSMNP) yesterday (Sat the

19th), and to my surprise (more of a disappointment) was how many

people were up there. I know that being a photographer means you

have to put up with a few tourists here and there, but here, they

were just everywhere, every pull-off was swelling with people, at

most of them there wasn't even any room to park. The Cades Cove loop

was averaging 2-3 hours to get around, personally I think it was

longer, there was a guy walking next to my truck that was going much

faster, I finally bailed out on Rich Mt Road after an hour and a

half. The intersection at Sugarlands visitor center was backed up

miles in every direction. The excitement I had while driving up

turned into on of disappointment driving home. Sorry about my rant

and long post�..

 

Which brings me to a couple of Questions.....

1) Does anybody know if the park is going to do anything about all of

the traffic....run shuttles, limit people into the park. Blow up

cities like Gatlinburg and Cherokee (where it seems everybody is

headed)--just kidding about that, before somebody flames me

 

2) Does anybody know if most of the trees are dead heading up from

Cherokee to around Newfound Gap? When I was up there last year I

remembered thinking why are all the leaves down in this section.

 

And for all of you wondering about the color change, there really

isn't a whole lot going on yet, mostly still green, a few yellows

popping up here and there, but overall very low.----Guess I'll have

to go back next weekend to check it out :)

[Ed_Ingold]

This park is the most-visited national park in the United States. It is within an half-day drive of 50% of the population. It's a really great place to visit. Welcome to the crowd.

 

A lot of the pine trees are dead, due to disease and beetle damage. I haven't noticed anything special about the deciduous trees.

 

Walking is the only way to really see Cade's Cove. Besides, you get to pass most of the cars on the way. You can stop to look or take pictures any time you want, without blocking the cars behind you - a thought lost on most of the drivers there anyway. Allow 4-5 hours.

 

Gatlinburg has a bypass, but not Pigeon Forge, where the traffic is getting really bad. The Townsend entrance is a lot less congested, except on Fall weekends. It's only 7 miles from Townsend to Cade's Cove. You could rent a bike and get there in 45 minutes (and maybe pass a few more cars.)

[jim schwaiger]

Aaron, what did you expect on a Saturday in the Fall when the leaves are

starting to change? If you want to avoid a lot of that, you'll have to make time

during the week or find non-touristy places to photograph.

 

I was up in the mountainoua area of Alabama this week, and we are just

before peak around here. Some trees drop their leaves early and some are at

peak now, but the majority should peak next week.

[markci]

Shocking. Next you'll tell me that Daytona Beach is overrun with college kids in early April.

[photomark]

Well Aaron, it is pretty silly that you went to the most popular park during the most

popular time of year and were surprised that it was crowded.

 

A couple of suggestions:

 

Get a backpack and hike. Once you get a few miles away from the trailheads you will

find a whole different world. Smoky Mountain National park has a very extensive trail

system and there are some really nice spots if you are willing to walk a couple miles.

 

Visit during the off season. The park is nice in the spring and not nearly as crowded.

You won't have the colors, but there is a lot more to this place than fall colors.

 

Visit some lesser known areas. The whole Appalachian Mountain Range is available

to you. Many of the areas near the park are as impressive and not nearly as crowded.

 

The trees at the higher elevations are quickly being destroyed by the Balsam Woolly

Adelgid. It is a non-native bug that probably came in with nursery stock that loves to

eat Fraser Fir. It is a terrible situation because the Fraser Fir used to make up about

80% of the crown species--it is a real keystone to the whole area. This little bug is

changing the ecosystem drastically by killing off the crown and opening up areas that

have always been shaded--putting stress on some unique species that are adapted to

living under the canopy.

 

Also, air pollution is putting a lot of stress on the tress as well and isn't as

discriminating about which trees it kills.

[bill_shackelford]

Aaron,

 

As Edward said GSMNP is the most visited park in the national park system with over 9 million visitors annually. You picked the busiest time of the year and the busiest part of the park to visit. Some areas with fewer visitors you might try are Cataloochee and Greenbrier.

 

As for the Park Service regulating traffic there have been discussions of a plan to use shuttle buses in Cades Cove. As for Newfound Gap Rd from Gatlinburg to Cherokee it is a US highway (Hwy 441) and when the park was created part of the agreement was to keep access open. Possibly this could be made into a toll road to limit traffic and raise revenue but I suspect both Gatlinburg and Cherokee to lobby against this. Last year the Park Service lowered the roadbed under the tunnels to allow larger RVs to use the road. I thought that limiting the height of vehicles would have been a better solution but my view didn�t prevail. We seem to change superintendents every few years so it is hard to get anything substantive done.

 

The lack of leaves you saw last year was the result of a couple of years of drought. The leaves turned brown and dropped off rapidly. Insect pests and disease are also affecting the trees. The Fraser fir is being killed by the Balsam Woolly Adelgid, the pines by the Southern Pine Beetle, the oaks by the Gypsy Moth and recently the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid has been found in the park. Diseases include chestnut blight and dogwood anthracnose.

 

This year we had lots of rain during the summer to end the drought and started a good color season, not a great one, until a storm came through the Smokies on 10-14-03 with steady winds of 30+ mph. WLOS TV reported one gust at Grandfather Mountain was measured at 110 mph. Lots of leaves down the next morning with a noticeable difference in color in the Bryson City / Cherokee area.

[dan_brittain]

I live in Knoxville and frequently visit the Smokies. It helps to learn some back roads and the suggestion to walk around Cades Cove is an excellent one. Sometimes just a few feet off the main road is where you can really see some wildlife. And weekdays can be much easier than weekends.

There is an ongoing debate about what to do about the traffic and crowds. When the park was established it was in the charter to be free to all. Personally I wouldn't mind paying a small fee to visit but I don't know if that would help any (except bring in some much needed money). Around Cades Cove a tramway or shuttle bus has been brought up for years but then you need a huge parking lot for it. I think all the need to do is widen the loop road but there are others that would disagree.

And with it being the peak season there are the largest crowds of the year. I was up at 6am this morning at Look Rock on the Foothills Parkway (overlooking the Smokies) to catch some sunrise pics and there were about 15 people there. All of use trying to get that perfect picture.

[ken_dunn1]

Going to the Smokies in mid Oct on a weekend and expecting not to find crowds is like going to a stadium the day of the superbowl expecting the same, it aint gonna happen. It has one of the best color displays in the world and it being a national park people are comfortable visiting it, especially since it has no entrance fees (the states of NC and TN gave the feds this land on that condition). Like someone else pointed out, it is very close to much of the entire US population, and not far at all from many large cities like Atlanta, Nashville, etc. There are other places that are very nice in the Southern Appalachians that are less visited, Cherohala is one that is closer to you that comes to mind. I wish they would close the Cades Cove loop to cars on Sats even in Oct. I wish they would close it to cars everyday, actually. Wonderful to see it on bicycle. Maybe they should just open it to cars a couple of days/week and the foks that cant or won't ride it could still be happy.

[gordon_woodward]

I was in GSMNP back in '97 during my several month tour of the USA and I couldn't believe how busy it was then. Cars and people everywhere making the experience not pleasurable at all, quite a bit different to the National Park experience down here in Australia.

 

While there though we did find that visiting some locations which were accessable by back roads made a world of difference in regards to crowding. I remember hiking up a river (Roaring Fork from memory) which had a lot of photographic opportunities but no grand vistas to speak of.

 

I have to agree with the Gatlinburg comment, it's quite a jarring experience driving along that highway between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, full of Putt-Putt Golf and factory outlet centres, only to cross-over into picturesque national park.

 

Gordon

[ron_chapman1]

I will be taking my first trip there Nov.15-22 and have just a few questions maybe someone can answer. First how long of a drive from Gatlinburg to Cades Cove. I'm going there manly to photograph the deer, so the other question is, is there other places to see deer than cades cove.

[bill_shackelford]

You might try here<a href=http://www.nps.gov/grsm/gsmsite/cadescove.html >Cades Cove</a> or here<a href=http://www.nps.gov/grsm/pphtml/maps.html >Maps</a>

[jason_crader1]

Unless you were there last weekend you shouldn't say anything about the crowds. I was and I have to agree with Aaron that it was a mess.

 

I don't think shuttles are the answer...for one if you are interested in wildlife photography do you really think the shuttle will stop and let you out to shoot photos of bears or deer...I don't think they will. Myself and several other photographers were made to leave while we were photographing a bear two different days...we all were well over 100 yards away from the bear and probably 500 yards from the road but the rangers made a point to come and make us leave...the funny thing is that we weren't bothering the bear at all, he was feeding and acting perfectly normal but left soon after the ranger made everyone leave.

 

I don't know what the answer to the crowds situation is but I wouldn't want a shuttle only service after my experiences this past weekend. Sometimes I think the park service has it in for photographers more than the regualr tourist....

[bill_shackelford]

Most people don't like the idea of a shuttle but it may be the only practicle solution. As I said before GSMNP receives over 9 million visitors yearly with over 2 million going to Cades Cove and spending an average of 3 hours there. Over half of those 2 million visitors come in 4 months, June, July, August & October. Widening the road has been discussed but the consensus is that would only increase the traffic leading to more impact on the air quality and ecology. Sadly there are no easy solutions.

[photomark]

I spent some time in Zion N.P. this summer. The shuttle system there works very, very

well. It runs early and late and creates the illusion that there are not many visitors in

the park when, in fact, it receives millions. It is nice not worrying about parking or

getting angry at bad drivers; you just hop on the shuttle and it makes several stops in

the valley. The air quality has also improved markedly. Cades cove is small. If you are

willing to walk a little bit and the shuttles have several stops in various areas you

won't have any problem seeing and photographing the entire cove. I think a shuttle

system would make Cades Cove a much nicer experience in the summer.

[glenn_tamblingson1]

As was noted, the winds were very high just days before you and I got to this area. I was in Asheville and could see the trees that experienced blow out, having only green leaves, and missing many if not all. The Blue Ridge was dull, but by Tuesday 10/21 color was starting to re-appear where the green leaves had been left. I suspect that there will be a near peak by this weekend of what is left. The locals say that the best leaf color is always the weekend of the Tennessee vs. Alabama game. www.gktphotos.com<div></div>

[alaponsa]

Sounds like all of us can agree on one thing, that the park is overcrowded, what we can't agree on is whether we are allowed to complain about it.......Thanks to all that answered my questions about why the leaves were gone in certain areas. At least for me I'd still much rather be sitting in traffic in a gorgeous place like the GSMNP rather then a local freeway.