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Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Shuttles Make Visiting Cades Cove In Great Smoky Mountains National Park A Bit Easier

If you've ever driven through Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you know how slow that can be due to all the vehicles trying to negotiate the 11-mile loop road. Well, things are going to be a bit easier now thanks to a shuttle service that debuted today.

Trails Forever Program Facilitates High-Priority Trail Improvements at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Friends of the Smokies created their Trails Forever program to help with high-priority trails projects at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Trails Forever endowment goal is a hefty $4 million. Trails Forever is currently seeking volunteers to help with two major trail projects in the park.

Capturing Fall's Splendor in the National Park System

A few years ago we decided to brave the throngs of visitors and see Virginia’s fall display in Shenandoah National Park (where, ironically, the highest visitation month is October!) and drive the famed Skyline Drive. With the colors at their peak around our home in Pennsylvania, we figured that Shenandoah's forests would be nearing their peak as well.

Conservation Groups Sue to Cut Air Pollution Over Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Whenever talk turns to air pollution and impacts on national parks, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the first parks mentioned. A coalition of conservation groups went to court today with hopes of preventing the park's pollution problems from growing.

Singer Dolly Parton Named Ambassador for Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Anniversary

Dolly Parton grew up in Tennessee not far from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she's sung My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy, Mule Skinner Blues, My Tennessee Mountain Home, and Tennessee Homesick Blues, so should it be any surprise that the singer has been named ambassador for the park's 75th birthday?

National Park Quiz 22: Angels and Saints

Quiz 10 on July 9 was “Speak of the Devil.” Fair is fair, so this week we’ll turn the focus in the heavenly direction and deal with angels, saints, and such. Answers are at the end. If we catch you peeking, we’ll make you write “The cognitive complexities of the term ‘saint’ render lexical disambiguation extraordinarily challenging” 100 times on the whiteboard.
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Cosberella lamaralexanderi, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Most often we look at the obvious in national parks: gorgeous waterfalls or mountain settings, so-called charismatic mega-fauna such as wolves, bears or moose, colorful wildflowers.

But beyond those scenes and subjects there's an amazing world of life. Since the late 1990s biologists have been involved in an All Taxa Biological Inventory at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Designed to inventory all the various forms of life in the park, the inventory to date has discovered nearly 900 life forms new to science and 5,000 new to the park.

Ernest Bernard, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, via Discover Life in America
www.nps.gov/grsm
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Getting American Youth More Involved in the National Parks is a Difficult Challenge and a Golden Opportunity

Nurturing broadly-based advocacy for the national parks has never been more critical, and promoting greater youth interest and visitation is a key consideration. Some progress is being made, but much more can be done.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps

On Saturday, September 27, Great Smoky Mountains National Park will host a day of activities celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps. At various times during 1933-1942, around 4,000 enrollees assigned to 22 CCC camps built roads, trails, fire towers, and other structures in the park.

The Essential RVing Guide

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.

This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.

You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.

So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.