We all know that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited park in the United States. In 2021, the Smokies had 14.1 million visitors. Maybe it was a pandemic response and wanting to be outside or just greater appreciation of the outdoors. The bottom line is that there was a 57 percent uptick in visitation in a decade. But the park doesn’t get more money because of increased visitation; that’s not how the National Park Service works.

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. A number of units within the National Park System are opening their roads, or in some cases, delaying openings.

One is a military site that commemorates the role of the Victoria-Esquimalt fortifications in defending Victoria and the Esquimalt naval base for nearly 80 years. The other was the first permanent lighthouse on Canada’s Pacific coast.

Unable to charge a traditional park entrance fee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials are getting creative in an effort to raise needed funding by calling for a parking fee.