Where will you be on August 21 when the solar eclipse casts its shadow across the United States? At Great Smoky Mountains National Park, officials are planning a party to help you both view and understand the science of the eclipse.
The park is offering an opportunity to experience the total eclipse through a special, ticketed event at Clingmans Dome as well as informal eclipse viewing sites at Cades Cove and Oconaluftee. The park is partnering with NASA, Southwestern Community College, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to provide a special program with featured speakers and storytellers that help explain the science and cultural connection to this unique natural event at Clingmans Dome.
At 6,643 feet in elevation, Clingmans Dome is the highest point in the park and offers the unique possibility of seeing the moon's shadow approaching across the landscape. The area will be closed to all public vehicle traffic to better accommodate a safe, memorable experience for about 1,325 ticketed participants. The parking area will be converted into the special event site that will include a Jumbotron screen for participating in a national NASA TV broadcast, telescopes, educational exhibits, and stage for special featured speakers.
“We are thrilled that the park lies within the narrow viewing band of this spectacular, natural phenomena,” said Deputy Superintendent Clay Jordan. “I have great memories of the time I experienced a partial solar eclipse as a child and I am thrilled to view my first total eclipse from the top of the Smokies in the company of a passionate group of visitors.”
Beginning March 1, tickets will be available for purchase on a first come first serve basis through www.recreation.gov for $30 each. You must have a ticket to attend the event at Clingmans Dome. Participants will be shuttled to the site from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and Cherokee, North Carolina, by coach bus. The Clingmans Dome tower itself will be reserved for the media and live broadcasting teams to share the experience with the widest audience possible. Special presentations and activities will take place during the approximately three-hour period in the afternoon when the sun will be partially and, for a brief time, totally obscured by the moon.
With a full schedule of entertaining and educational programs, park rangers and partners are working together to provide a worthwhile experience, even if the sun is obscured by clouds on the day of the event.
While a unique experience, the Clingmans Dome location does present logistical challenges that visitors must consider before making a reservation. Due to its remote outdoor location, an inflexible transportation schedule, and limited service facilities on site, interested visitors should closely review event details and consider which of the park opportunities, among many other planned eclipse events in surrounding communities, would best fit each personal situation.
Visitors should also note that park roads, including Newfound Gap Road, may close on the day of the event depending on traffic congestion. For more information about the solar eclipse events, please call the information line at 865-436-1585 or visit the park website.
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Comments
I was prepared and online prior to the 10:00 AM opening for tickets to Clingmans DOme. At 10:00 I put all pertinent information online and as I was preparing to enter my credit card number I am told all tickets sold. How is that possible if they only started selling at 10:00 AM. I am very disappointed about this.
Joy, that sounds like what happens frequently in many places where it's not illegal to scalp tickets. Someone buys up a huge number of tickets in a block and then sells them independely for big profits. Ticket scalping is big business in some states.
It sounds as if someone needs to try to get somebody to investigate. But in many places (like Utah), it's not illegal and little can be done. Out here, a few organizations have limited the number of tickets one transaction may buy. The successful ones somehow track computers and limits the number that may be purchased from a single computer address.
It's good public relations for them.
First of all, the reservation system is rigged to support concessionaires and guide services who have backdoor logins to the system. So they probably got in there before anyone else, they do it all the time with the backcountry reservation system.
Second, why the hell are you paying them to use public lands anyway. Locals are outraged over this stupid fee scheme. GRSM was donated to the federal govt and paying $30 to see a natural phenomena on public lands is an abomination to the founding principles of the park. Walk in off the AT and skip the fee.
I don't know about the concessionaires, but through the reservation system there was a limit of 4 tickets per person, and it said that you had to show an ID to board the bus, and the ID had to match the purchaser's name, and the purchaser had to be with the group. That would prevent some scalping, at least.
Joy--Chances are that concessionaires gobbled up all the tickets in advance. That certainly happens, and on a regular basis, with choice back country campsites in prime camping time frames. There is abundant evidence that they enjoy favored status.
Beyond that, as SmokiesBackpacker suggests, just take shank's mare to avoid paying to use "the peoples Park." In addition to the AT, there are other approaches to the Clingmans Dome Road. For example, you could take the Deep Creek Trail off Highway 441 the night before, hike four miles to the Poke Patch site, spend the night, then the next morning hike the four miles or so up Fork Ridge Trail (accessible a few hundred yards from Poke Patch) to the Clingmans Dome Road.
This whole concept of using a natural phenomenon as a cash cow (pun fully intended) frosts my grits.
Jim Casada
The Almighty Creator crafted the Smokies land. Timber barons raped it. Tennesseans and North Carolineans rescued it through fund drives and herculean private financial efforts. Then they turned it over to the NPS for protection and preservation. Then the NPS monetized this resource freely given to their care. I believe in the Almighty and judgement. We all will answer for how we have prostituted these gifts, be it viewing fireflies or an eclipse.