More Road Work In Great Smoky Mountains National Park

More road work — relatively straightforward paving, not reconstruction — is coming to Great Smoky Mountains National Park this summer.

The Newfound Gap Road, which had a roughly 200-foot-long gash repaired earlier this year, will have 6.1 miles repaved as part of a multi-phased rehabilitation project that started back in 2007. The section to be resurfaced extends from Chimney’s Picnic Area south to an overlook approximately 2 miles south of the Alum Cave Bluffs parking area where the last phase ended.

The work will be performed under a $13.2 million contract with Estes Brothers Construction of Jonesville, Virginia, and will be administered by the Federal Highway Administration’s Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division. Funding is provided to the NPS through the Federal Lands Transportation Program to support this work.

“In developing this contract we made every effort to minimize the disruption to visitor access to park attractions and to our gateway communities,” said park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson. “The contract incorporates a variety of work restrictions that are tailored to minimize lane closures during the busiest periods.”

Motorists should expect delays due to lane closures through June 15. There will not be any daytime lane closures from June 15 through August 15. After August 15, daytime lane closures will again be allowed. No work of any kind will be permitted on federal holidays or during the month of October.

This section of road was last repaved in the 1980s and is badly deteriorated, according to park staff. In addition to the repaving, major work items in this project include the replacement of drainage culverts and the repair of several guard walls. This work is the second of three phases to repair all 15 miles of the Road from Newfound Gap to the park boundary at Gatlinburg – a process that park managers expect to finish in 2016.

Volunteers indispensable to say Appalachian Trail

GATLINBURG, Tenn. — A lot of a route work in a Great Smoky Mountains National Park is finished by volunteers. There is another use event Jun 1.

It is a 21st National Trails Day and volunteers are indispensable to assistance say a Appalachian Trail.

Volunteers need stout shoes, adequate celebration H2O and will need to container a lunch. At a finish of a day, volunteers will be treated to a cruise during Melcalf Bottoms and get a commemorative T-shirt.

There’s a $25 registration fee, that goes to unite route projects in a Smokies.

For some-more information or to obtain a registration form, revisit a Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park website at: http://www.friendsofthesmokies.org/events.html or hit Holly Scott during (865) 932-4794.

Paving starts on Newfound Gap Road in Smokies

GATLINBURG, Tenn. — With warmer continue here, a repaving plan is resuming in a Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The work will embody a 6.1-mile territory of U.S. 441, also called Newfound Gap Road. The territory being resurfaced this summer extends from a cruise area during a Chimneys to a Alum Cave Bluffs parking area, where work final summer ended.

Park officials pronounced drivers should design delays on a two-lane towering road. There will be no daytime paving work from Jun 15 to Aug. 15 and nothing in October, when a Smokies are alive by visitors to see a tumble foliage.

This summer’s work is partial of 3 phases that will eventually repave all 15 miles of a highway from a park range during Gatlinburg to Newfound Gap on a Tennessee-North Carolina border.

Summer in the park: Great Smoky Mountains

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the country, with 9.7 million visitors last year.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranger Caitlin Worth, shown here on the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower hike, spent a lot of her childhood at the park.

Don’t oversleep on the day you visit Cades Cove. Right after sunrise is Worth’s favorite time to see active wildlife there.

For a spectacular view, walk up to the observation tower at Clingmans Dome. Once you’ve visited the tower, you can even walk a little bit of the Appalachian Trail.

Worth’s favorite spring and fall hike is to Mount Cammerer Fire Tower, but it’s fairly intense: About 11 miles round trip or longer if you hike the loop.

While many people (rightly) go to Cades Cove to spot bears, Worth loves to see elk when she hikes the Oconaluftee River Trail.

The historic Mingus Mill, built in 1886, helps children imagine life in the late 1800s.

Worth’s family took a trip to Gulf Islands National Seashore every year when she was a child, and she credits that park with inspiring her to become a park ranger.

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Editor’s note: CNN.com’s weekly Summer in the Park series turns to rangers at the United States’ most popular national parks to get insider recommendations for your visits, whether you have just one day or can stay longer. The series will run through Labor Day.

(CNN) — The boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina might be one of the loveliest border crossings ever: It’s the crest of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hikers on the Appalachian Trail walk the line between the two states for most of the trail’s path through the park.

Incredible biological diversity is one of the Smokies’ standout features.

Animals and plants typically found in the northern United States are found at the park’s higher elevations, while at lower elevations, the flora and fauna of the Southern states are represented. Elevations reach 6,643 feet in the Smokies, which are among the oldest mountains in the world.

Park stats: Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the country with 9.7 million visitors last year. It occupies 800 square miles in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. More than 17,000 species have been found in the park.

The location: Great Smoky Mountains National Park is in North Carolina and Tennessee.

If you go: Entry to the park is free. Camping costs range from $14 to $23 per night.

Meet our ranger: A second-generation park ranger, Caitlin Worth knows her national parks well. Her father and mother met working for the Park Service at Washington’s National Mall. The family followed her father to his postings at Acadia National Park in Maine and the Great Smokies. (Her father retired as head of the Great Smokies’ public affairs office last year.) Worth did summer internships at the park while in college and graduate school, and she was hired permanently three years ago.

Now Worth, her husband and new baby live just a mile from the park. “I fell in love with this park when I worked here (as a seasonal intern) and couldn’t figure out why I’d ever want to be anywhere else,” she says. “There are so many historical resources here. There are so many places you could close your eyes and open them again and you’re in the past.”

For a day trip, don’t miss: Cades Cove right after sunup (especially in the summer) to see the misty valley waking up and the wildlife at its most active. You might spend a few hours there. “One of biggest mistakes people make, if they have only one day, is to start at 10 a.m. You’ve already missed the best hours. It’s hot and busy, and they don’t see it the way they should.”

If you have a little more time, drive up and over the mountain to Clingmans Dome, the park’s highest point. You can walk up to the observation tower and even walk a little bit of the Appalachian Trail. “The Southern Appalachian mountains are pretty spectacular.”

Favorite less-traveled spot: The hike to the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower is Worth’s favorite hike to see spring wildflowers and changing fall colors. But it’s not for novices. It’s a long hike — about 11 miles round trip or 17 miles in a loop — and it’s not flat.

“I like a hike that makes me feel like I worked for it,” she says. “It’s a good challenge hike if you’re up for one. And it’s quiet, which is sometimes hard to find in the park.”

Favorite spot to view wildlife: While Cades Cove is filled with people wanting to see bears, Worth loves to spot elk and spring bird migrations in the Oconaluftee Valley. The Oconaluftee River Trail runs through the valley, as does the road (in case you’re worn out at this point). “There’s something about that valley in the morning that’s spectacular,” she says. “There’s an ethereal quality.”

Most magical moment: Leading a group of second-graders to see Mingus Mill, Worth suggested the children pretend they saddle up on their imaginary horses with their imaginary bags to collect corn from the mill. Then everyone galloped up the hill to the mill.

“You can imagine a ranger galloping up the hill in full uniform?” says Worth, laughing. “The class wanted to ride their horses all day. And they asked if the horses could look like whatever they wanted.” Yes, of course, she told them. Her horse had purple stripes and sparkles.

“By the end of the day, the kids really fell in love with their horses. One girl came up to me and said, ‘Thank you for letting us come to the park. Can we take our horses home with us?’ “

Another favorite national park: The Florida side of the Gulf Islands National Seashore (it also skips a state as part of it is also in Mississippi) was Worth’s annual beach trip as a child, and it’s the place she credits with making her want to be a park ranger.

“I saw my dad going to work in a uniform but I didn’t get it,” she says. “It was the junior ranger program (at Gulf Island) where I fell in love with the idea of being a park ranger (when I was 6). I just loved it.”

Gulf Islands is an “amazing untouched beach park, where I feel like I’m on a real Florida beach that hasn’t been manufactured or plowed flat,” she says. “It’s also a neat historical park with fortifications on the islands” dating back nearly 150 years to the Spanish.

What’s your favorite national park and why? Please tell us in the comments section below.

Volunteers indispensable to say Appalachian Trail

GATLINBURG, Tenn. — A lot of a route work in a Great Smoky Mountains National Park is finished by volunteers. There is another use event Jun 1.

It is a 21st National Trails Day and volunteers are indispensable to assistance say a Appalachian Trail.

Volunteers need stout shoes, adequate celebration H2O and will need to container a lunch. At a finish of a day, volunteers will be treated to a cruise during Melcalf Bottoms and get a commemorative T-shirt.

There’s a $25 registration fee, that goes to unite route projects in a Smokies.

For some-more information or to obtain a registration form, revisit a Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park website at: http://www.friendsofthesmokies.org/events.html or hit Holly Scott during (865) 932-4794.

Attendance down at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

GATLINBURG, Tn. (WYMT/WVLT) – Officials with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park says visitation for January through April of this year was down from last year.

Officials with the National Park Service say 1,620,340 visitors which is 359,202 less than what was seen during the same period in 2012.

The park service believes a landslide that washed out Newfound Gap Road was the leading factor for visitation being down this year.

The Gatlinburg, TN entrance saw a high number of visitors in the facility during the Spring Break period in early April. The visitor center recorded over 6000 visitors in one day which is a 20 year record.

Great Smoky Mountains Association to celebrate 60th anniversary

Posted: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 1:45 pm

Great Smoky Mountains Association to celebrate 60th anniversary

A day of hikes, lectures and cupcakes is planned to celebrate Great Smoky Mountains Association’s 60th anniversary on Saturday, June 22, at Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee.

GSMA’s legacy of providing financial support to Great Smoky Mountains National Park began in 1953 with a slightly longer name (Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association) and a $100 startup loan from Mount Rainier Natural History Association. The organization’s mission in the last 60 years has remained the same – to assist national park visitors by providing educational and other park-related sales items; to build a membership program of those who wish to support the park; and to use the proceeds of both these efforts to contribute to preservation efforts in the most-visited national park in America.

“Our organization started by selling postcards and Pioneer Farmstead pamphlets for a nickel. Our lifetime memberships were offered for $5,” said Terry Maddox, GSMA director. “Since then we have become home to one of the largest and most recognized national park publication teams, increased our membership ranks to more than 12,000 individuals and supporting businesses, expanded our visitor center and stores to eight in North Carolina and Tennessee, and grown our staff of GSMA employees to 70.

“More importantly, our organization in the last 60 years has contributed more than $30 million to the national park,” he said. “I’d call that an effort worth celebrating.”

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013 1:45 pm.

Smokies visits approaching to miscarry with highway fixed

GATLINBURG, Tenn. — The National Park Service expects visits to a Great Smoky Mountains National Park to rebound, now that U.S. 441 has been easy on a North Carolina side.

April visits were down 14.6 percent, compared with Apr 2012. Park officials pronounced that was off scarcely 109,000 people from a year before and 11.9 percent next a five-year normal for April.

On Apr 15, a highway – also famous as Newfound Gap Road – was non-stop after roughly 90 days of closure due to a landslide.

With a highway again open between Gatlinburg, Tenn., and Cherokee, N.C., park officials expect a lapse to ancestral visitation numbers during a residue of a year.

Attendance down at Great Smoky Mountains National Park – WKYT.com

GATLINBURG, Tn. (WYMT/WVLT) – Officials with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park says visitation for January through April of this year was down from last year.

Officials with the National Park Service say 1,620,340 visitors which is 359,202 less than what was seen during the same period in 2012.

The park service believes a landslide that washed out Newfound Gap Road was the leading factor for visitation being down this year.

The Gatlinburg, TN entrance saw a high number of visitors in the facility during the Spring Break period in early April. The visitor center recorded over 6000 visitors in one day which is a 20 year record.

Agreement to preserve nearly 4000 acres connecting Smoky Mountains …

MARYVILLE, Tennessee — The Brookfield Renewable Energy Group and The Nature Conservancy have come to an agreement that will preserve about 4,000 acres of land in East Tennessee.

The Daily Times (http://bit.ly/16MBiYJ) reports the agreement covers land connecting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest.

According to a recent announcement, The Nature Conservancy will convey the acreage over a 2-year period to state and federal partners.

Brookfield Renewable Energy Group bought Tapoco-APGI, ALCOA Inc.’s hydroelectric project for $600 million in 2012. The sale included four dams and about 14,500 acres.

Brookfield U.S. chairman John Zuccotti said the company “believes in greening and believes in renewable power.”

“There is no more popular or magnificent section of the great American outdoors than the land adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who spoke during the announcement this month at Calderwood Dam.

“Any effort to find new ways to protect that land and make more of it available for outdoor recreation certainly will be welcomed by Tennesseans. Today’s announcement means tens of thousands of Tennesseans and visitors will be able to continue to enjoy more hiking, hunting, fishing and boating.”

Alex Wyss, director of conservation programs for the Tennessee Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, said the organization wants to enhance the ways in which the public can enjoy the property.

“We intend to improve the recreation opportunities,” he said. “We want to leave it even better than we found it.”

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest are connected by lands along the Little Tennessee River and provide habitat for several plant and animal species.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Director Ed Carter said his staff was pleased with the gift.

“We know the possibility was there, but we always thought: could we ever scrape up enough money to buy it? Then this happened. It’s the best of all possible worlds,” he said.

Information from: The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com