Great Smoky Mountains national park winter closures

As the days become shorter in the Great Smoky Mountains national park as winter closes is so does you list of choices of where to take an auto tour, where to go horseback riding, where to go site seeing and where to go camping in the GSM national park.

The highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National park Clingmans Dome and the road leading up to it closes until weather permits in March. This steep winding road is dangerous enough without snow and ice so deep winter driving on this high altitude road is out of the question.

One of the nicest and most popular frontcountry developed campgrounds in the Great Smoky Mountains national park is located in Elkmont Tennessee and it closes until spring at noon December 1st. A quick check today revealed less than a handful of campers in the Elkmont Tennessee campgrounds today.

Backcountry campsites in Elkmont Tennessee will remain open throughout the winter. Note that Elkmont backcountry campsite 20 still has an active black bear warning posted but the site still remains open.

The Roaring Fork Motor trail located in the Roaring Fork area of the park located adjacent to Gatlinburg Tennessee is also closed as of December 1st. This one way winding motor trail offers splendid wooded views, historic residences, mountain vistas and some popular trailheads.

Only the motor trail is closed in the Roaring Fork area so to get to Grotto Falls, Baskin Creek trail, the Baskin Creek Waterfall, Grapeyard Ridge, and the Trillium Gap trail you need to park your vehicle in one of the Rainbow Falls parking areas and then walk to the trailhead.

Last but not least the last of the horseback riding stables in the Great Smoky Mountains national park that was open; the Smoky Mountain Riding Stables has just closed for the winter.

Great Smoky Mountains National Parks New Twin Creeks Science and Education Center Open house

The new Twin Creek Science and educational faculty in the Roaring Fork area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg Tennessee will have an open house December 1st.

Last week Senator Lamar Alexander was a keynote speaker when the environmentally friendly 15,000 square foot facility was officially dedicated and now the public can tour the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center located on Cherokee Orchard Road from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm this Saturday.

Not only is the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center an attractive building featuring a beautiful architectural design that fits perfectly into the landscape of the Smoky Mountains National park, this building features energy and water saving features that should be incorporated into all new commercial and residential buildings.

Water conservation in the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center is accomplished through the use of low-flow plumbing fixtures, waterless urinals and recovering storm water runoff from the building into rock lined holding ponds.

Energy savings are accomplished through building alignment and large strategically placed windows which optimize natural daylight, high-efficiency automatic lighting and the use of both recycled and natural building materials.

It has been proven that incorporating such intelligence into building designs greatly improves the heath and well being as well as the efficiency and productivity of those working within such a facility.

Economically advanced environmentally friendly buildings generally only cost 5% more than their less efficient counterparts and the additional costs are usually recouped in less than 6 years.

The purpose of the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center is to allow the national parks resource mangers and even visiting guest scientists to have an effect place for their continuing studies into the biological inventory of the park under the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory program, a climate-control storage area for the approximately 50,000 plant and insect specimens, and work spaces in order to study the water and air quality for the national park.

The scientific data collected by the park and the subsequent research will be shared with teachers and students in a guest classroom within the Twin Creeks Science and Education Center allowing neighboring communities to share in the findings and to better understand the scientific process.

In a press release the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson stated "We are pleased to offer our neighbors a chance to see first hand this unique building and the distinctive elements that make this a showcase for the Park and surrounding communities" and he went on to say "Resource managers will be available to discuss the different office and work stations and our education staff will have hands-on activities highlighting the Parks as Classrooms program for children to participate. The public can also view a variety of exhibits that were prepared to outline the Park's different science initiatives and wildlife and vegetation management programs, as well as explore the chemical lab and natural history specimen collection. Part of the preserved collection includes the extinct passenger pigeon which will be on display,"

Newfound Gap (441) Road Reopens for happy drivers

Newfound Gap Road was safe enough for traffic today so the Great Smoky Mountains National Park service without warning reopened the stretch of 441 running from Gatlinburg to Cherokee.

Drivers were relived to be able to take the shortcut through the park and save the time it would have taken to go around the park via I40.

One of the park visitors we encountered from Georgia told us she was relived as she and her family came into Gatlinburg late Tuesday night through the park and missed seeing the fall colors on the trees in the mountains and the kids wanted a chance to play in the snow. When she came into the park earlier in the day she was surprised that the road was closed.

441 Newfound Gap Road in Great Smokies Mountains National Park closed due to icy conditions

Newfound Gap Road was closed due to snow and ice shutting off the major artery that runs through the Great Smoky mountains national park connecting Cherokee North Carolina with Gatlinburg Tennessee.

Drivers last night were surprised to see this major road in the GSMNP closed as in the lower elevations there was no snow or ice - nor even flurries. Temperatures around midnight were still in the upper 30s at Oconaluftee and the Sugarlands but at the higher elevations at Newfound Gap which is typically far cooler, slippery dangerous conditions prompted the parks department to close the icy road and kept it closed through out the night.

With temperatures expected to climb above freezing Newfound Gap could possibly be opened again later today, but real warming is not expected until Sunday which could make for a lot of very unhappy post thanksgiving drivers if they would have to take an alternate route most likely being I-40 to get over the mountains.

Smoky Mountains maintains better Real Estate values and new home sales then national average.

Look anywhere in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee and you will see plenty of cabins for sale, new developments being built and land for sale. While many who own property which is "for sale by owner and real estate agents and brokers are complaining about how soft the real estate market in the Smokies Mountains is, the national market is by far worse.

Lower taxes, temperate weather, affordable insurance and the beauty of the Smokies attract many new residents and keep existing residents in the North Carolina and Tennessee Smoky Mountains.

One of the issues that are affecting the real estate market here is the massive real estate downturn elsewhere and what affects the local real estate market here directly impacts construction companies in the Smoky Mountains as well.

An example of how much more resilient this real estate market is that for the first 3 quarters of 2007 sales when compared to 2006 sales 10 counties surrounding the city of Asheville North Carolina are only down slightly less than 2.5% while nationwide sales are down as much as 25%. For the month of October Construction of single family homes across the nation is at the lowest level for the past 16 years.

There are plenty of existing homes and residential rentals already in inventory and as a result new construction is effected but the construction on the higher end custom homes appears to be holding its own.

Two of the biggest problems real estate agents, builders and For Sale By Owners in the Smoky Mountains are finding is that prospective home buyers have credit and liquidity issues. People looking to move into the Smokies are unable to unload residences in other regions of the country or feel as though the offers they are getting are too low to accept. Often a home buyer's equity in their existing home is drying up with lowered house real estate values.

Banks and mortgage brokers were stumbling over themselves for years trying to give credit whenever and wherever possible - often in cases where any downturn in the market would make mortgagees unable to meet their obligations.

So what is one to do when it comes to buying or selling real estate in the Smoky Mountains?

Right now it is still a buyers market in the Smokies and elsewhere in the nation. If you have the capital and can obtain credit you won't see prices much lower if at all. If you wait for prices to come down, you may run into and issue with even more stringent credit approval requirements in the future.

For anyone looking to sell real estate in the Smoky Mountains, you are in better shape than most areas of the country but you still have your work cut out for you. While many choose to go it their own with the For Sale By Owner route get professional advice at what your home or property for sale is really worth in today's market and be realistic.

Road to Little Greenbrier School in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park closed because of black bear activity

The hiking trail starting at the Little Greenbrier School to the main Little Greenbrier hiking trail connecting Wears Cove with the Laurel Falls in the great Smoky Mountains National Park has been closed for nearly 3 weeks now due to excessive black bear activity which posses a serious risk to anyone entering the area. The park Service has recently closed the unimproved road from Wear Gap Road to the Little Greenbrier School with no opening date.

This road was closed with no public announcements and no clear answer from park staff and volunteers so the assumption offered to Your Smokies News is that some visitors to the national park were acting foolishly and even though the trail was closed people ignored the national park service posted warnings. Since park visitation is still high for leaf season and the bear in the national park are still active this road may remain closed for a while.

We will keep checking the road and will announce as soon as we see that the road to the Little Greenbrier School is open. We hope that it will open as soon as this road is slated to be closed New Years for the winter season.

Newfound Gap Road (441) connecting Gatlinburg TN to Cherokee NC reopened

Newfound gap road (441) reopened later this afternoon as repeated sanding efforts by the Great Smoky Mountains national park and warmer temperatures reduced the ice and snow by enough to make it safe again to drive.

From what I saw as the sun was setting in Newfound Gap, the puddles of water and wet roads were starting to freeze again, but since there was plenty of sandy grit on the ice due to the park services effort to keep the road open, drivers who are cautious should be OK. The picture below is one of the sheets of ice forming on the North Carolina side on Newfound Gap Road.

Even though Newfound Gap Road was reopened, the road up to the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at Clingmans Dome still remains closed due to snow and ice.

It looks as though the warming trend expected for this weekend will be able to melt the snow and ice on Clingmans Dome Road so it to may reopen before Monday.

First snow of the 2007 winter had too much accumulation and ice for the National Park Service and cars on Newfound Gap Road.

Snow started falling in the higher elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains national park with some accumulation making a challenge for both motorists and the park service to keep the roads safe and clear so Newfound Gap Road 441 from Gatlinburg TN to Cherokee NC is closed.

The National park service has been trying all day to keep the area near Newfound Gap clear but the dropping temperatures in the past hour has locked some sections of Newfound Gap Road into virtual sheets of ice.

While driving up one of the crests about 1/2 mile underneath Newfound Gap on the Tennessee side I experienced the conditions first hand as I felt my car slipping backwards downhill while I was stopped.

I then watched in dismay at cars getting stranded as they started to lose control and veer off of the road while they tried to turn around and get off the mountain top and head back to the Sugarlands Gatlinburg area which was free ice and accumulated snow.

I was luckily able to turn around in my front wheel drive car and slowly creep and slide my way back downhill until I reached a point where the conditions were safe to drive. Only 2 other cars where able to turn around and follow me, the rest remained stranded.

On my way back down Newfound Gap Road towards the Sugarlands I observed at least a dozen or so cars driving up towards Newfound Gap. I thought they would also get stuck behind other cars which were already stranded in the ice and I could only hope they would be able to be safely rescued.

As I passed the parking area for the Chimneys Trailhead I saw a sander truck on its way up the mountain. After the sander truck no further traffic headed up the mountain.

At the Sugarlands intersection the gate was down closing the road with a park rangers car blocking the road from any further traffic heading towards North Carolina.

The revised weather report is calling for anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of snow during the night so the park service announced that the Newfound Gap Road (441) will be closed until at least late in the morning tomorrow when the road can be evaluated for safety.

Earlier today the road leading up to Clingmans Dome was also closed due to snow and ice and may open after Newfound Gap is opened as long as the road conditions on this steep winding road are safe enough for all vehicles.

4 wheel drive or not - Newfound Gap Road is not the place to be tonight!

Newfound Gap Road 441 closed in the Smoky Mountains National Park

Snow and ice has the national park service closing Newfound Gap Road and sending up sander trucks to help stranded cars.

More to follow...

2007 Smoky Mountains leaf color change season peak

Leaf color changes thought the Smokies have just passed their peak but there will be plenty of color in the leaves of the trees and the mountainsides for weeks to come in Tennessee as well as in North Carolina.

In the Tennessee Smoky Mountains there are still plenty of trees still in the green phase but most have turned into light green, yellows, oranges and flaming reds giving a nice contrast to the tans and browns of leaves that changed colors sooner.

Last weeks cooler temperatures helped move things along in Tennessee’s leaf season and driving down Newfound Gap Road (441) from the North Carolina side by the 7 mile marker the riot of color in the leaves really show off. Of course now day by day this will work its way down to the lower elevations.

I have still found tons of great color in all of the hikes I have done in Cades Cove, Elkmont, Tremont, Greenbrier, Sugarlands and even Crosby this week and see that the oaks and the maples have at least another 2 weeks more color left in them.

Just as in real estate the key word is location. Some of the road sides are now past peak but once you wander in to the valleys or look up the side of the mountains you can see the yellows, green, reds and browns that make the Smokies a great place to see autumn colors.

While the peak has passed sooner in North Carolina there are still tremendous pockets of fall colors with hardwood trees now showing their flashy colors. Trees in some of the higher elevations have lost most of their leaves and the last few days’ rain has knocked off any of the leaves that were about to fall.

Hiking along ridge lines yesterday in North Carolina as well as driving along the Blueridge parkway I still found eye-popping colors and spectacular views everywhere.

Today may see some snow flurries in the upper elevations with little or no accumulations making for some spectacular pictures. No more snow is predicted for the next week.

If you are planning on coming to the Smokies in the next week or 2 you won’t miss out on the spectacular fall colors – just most of the traffic!

Dangerous Fog on Newfound Gap Road (441) and Blue Ridge Highway

Newfound Gap Road (441) from Cherokee NC to Gatlinburg TN is experiencing heavy fog especially in higher elevations on the North Carolina side south of Newfound gap parking area and Clingmans Dome road.

Driving is also extremely dangerous on the Blue Ridge Parkways with some areas having visibility of less than 30 feet.

Leaves on the roads and slick roads from this morning's rain and fog made for some very slow traffic and the high potential for accidents.

While colder temperatures are expected again tonight with a potential for ice, drivers should be extremely cautious when driving.

More closures in the Great Smoky Mountains national park started today.

The national park service has closed the 2 unimproved motor trails in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the winter.

Both the Rich Mountain Road and the newly opened Parsons Branch Road are now both closed until late spring to vehicles but still offer beautiful hiking.

The last part of the Roundbottom - Straight Fork Road off of Big Cove road in Cherokee North Carolina will be closing on November 12th. Though there are no faculties in this section of the park open now other than the Roundbottom horse camp which is also closing on the 12th, this is a wonderful place to get away from it all for the next few days.

Black Bear activity keeps Little Greenbrier hiking trails closed

A week after we reported that the Little Greenbrier hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National park was closed due to aggressive bear activity the popular hiking trail still remains closed.

While I have been unable to confirm the extent of the threat black bears in the area have made to visitors I can confirm numerous bear including mothers with cubs have been reported making the area an extremely unsafe for anyone to hike or venture in.

If you wish to see a black bear up close, go take the Cades Cove motor tour or take a ride in the Roaring Fork area where you can see bear from your car and where if you follow simple rules to keep you safe from a black bear attack you can take a picture of a lifetime.

There are only a few more weeks left of heavy black bear activity and being in backcountry areas where there are excessive or aggressive black bear is a bad idea.

More construction for I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge in NC to TN state line

Construction on I-40 will start this spring repaving about 15 miles of the interstate from Fines Creek to the Tennessee - North Carolina border line. Some preliminary work will actually start this month but the major push will have to wait until the warmer weather in the spring of 2008.

Besides repaving the interstate, improved drainage via pavement will be installed and some signs that have seen better days will be replaced. Construction work is expected to close more than 1 lane in each direction and to be completed in June of 2009.

The construction work on I-40 can be a real potential mess for commuters and tourists to the areas as even though roads won't be allowed to close during major holidays, weekends and peak travel times during the 2008 leaf season, since there are virtually no detours drivers can take, the potential for huge bottlenecks and delays are enormous.

Construction Work to begin on Gatlinburg - Pigeon Forge Spur (441) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have announced that starting November 5th construction will begin on the section of U.S. 441 know as the Spur which connects Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Spur sees plenty of use - an estimated 11 million vehicles a year and since the construction project on the Spur is scheduled to be completed by March 3, 2009 at a cost of $6.3 million, many will be impacted the during this major thoroughfare in the Smokies improvement.

In order to reduce the impact of those who use the spur in their day to day driving or those visiting the area, the national park service has mandated that lane closures will be avoided during peak periods and in order to accelerate work during January through May the construction being performed by Charles Blalock and Sons will be running 24/7 and lane closures will be permitted around the clock.

Motorists will also be happy to know that the national park service will not allow construction work to be permitted on the Spur during national holidays other than the tunnels repair work and slope stabilization on Norton Creek.

The first phase of construction work to be done on the Spur will take place from November 5th through December of this year and will cause single lane closures on both the northbound and southbound lanes. None of these lane closures will be allowed during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

In order for the engineers to evaluate the Northbound tunnel on the Spurs lighting system, one of the lanes will be closed on November 7th reducing traffic headed towards Pigeon forge to a single lane. Other work slated to be done to the tunnel is to repair the drainage systems which will start early in 2008.

Phase 2 of the construction project on the Spur will take place from January 3rd to May 24th, 2008. The construction projects to be done to the Spur in this phase are:

• Lighting repair/replacement to the Northbound Tunnel
• Drainage repair to Northbound Tunnel
• Repairing the Slope on the west side of the Spur at Norton Creek where there was a previous landslide
• Increase the clearance height at the Huskey Grove overpass
• Improvements to the culverts and drainage of the Spur

While this work is ongoing, if the weather cooperates the repaving of the Spurs surface will commence in March 2008.

Phase 3 of the Spurs construction which will run during peak visitation times in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from May 25th until December 2008 which is when the Spur sees the most traffic.

During this phase of construction the roads paving operations will continue but there will be no lane closures on weekends. Weekends according to the National park service are defined as beginning at noon on Friday and end at sunrise on Monday morning.

During Phase 3 of the Spurs construction work will not be permitted on legal holidays, the entire month of October and the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

The last phase which runs from January 2009 until March of 2009 should be last minute clean up as the contractor and the park service expect the majority of the work to be completed by phase 3.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson released a press statement explaining that the reason for such a long construction schedule "is due to the numerous restrictions placed on the work schedule to avoid lane closures during peak periods and to lessen disruptions to motorists," and that "In addition, during the design development of this project, a high priority was given to institute stringent safety measures to help avoid accidents on this heavily traveled roadway.

Little Greenbrier School hiking trail closed due to aggressive black bear behavior in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

While hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park yesterday along the Wears Cove Gap to Laurel Falls Trail I found the trail branching off to Little Greenbrier School closed by the national park service rangers due to aggressive bear behavior.

While it is not unusual to find warnings posted about black bear activity, especially in this time of year where black bears are extremely active, finding a hiking trail closed is.

Often backcountry campgrounds have warnings and sometimes even closures if there is excessive black bear activity because you are having people with food enter and stay in a black bears territory which can spell trouble for the people and ultimately the bear.

Hiking trails are only closed when bear exhibit threatening behavior, not just for just the mere fact that there is black bear activity in an area.

As the weather gets colder in the Smokies, expect the black bear activity in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to wane and for the Little Greenbrier School hiking trail to be reopened by the rangers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Winter Schedule Starts Today

The leaves are still on most of the trees in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and you can still hike in the park in a short sleeved shirt, but as of today the winter schedule starts for campgrounds, picnic areas, horse camps, visitor centers, and some roads in the GSMNP.

The winter closing schedule for the park phases in during the month of November with final closures such as Clingmans Dome taking place December 1st. Some of the visitor centers hours of operation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will change monthly and at Your Smokies we will keep you up to date.

• Cades Cove Parsons Branch Road to Route 129 closed for the winter on November 9th
• Cades Cove Rich Mountain Road to Townsend Tennessee closed for the winter on November 9th
• Cades Cove Campground becomes self-registration with a reduced number of available campsites for winter on November 1st
• Cades Cove Campground Store closed for the winter on November 1st
• Cades Cove Riding Stables is closed for winter on November 5th
• Cades Cove picnic areas will remain open through the winter
• Cades Cove Visitor Center November hours 9:00 am - 5:00 pm


• Anthony Creek Horse Camp closed for the winter on November 12th


• Abrams Creek Campgrounds closed for winter on November 1st


• Balsam Mountain/Heintooga Roads is closed for winter on November 1st
• Balsam Mountain campgrounds closed for the winter


• Big Creek Horse Camp closed for the winter on November 12th
• Big Creek Campgrounds closed for winter on November 1st
• Big Creek picnic areas will remain open through the winter


• Cataloochee Campgrounds closed for winter on November 1st
• Cataloochee Horse Camp closed for the winter on November 12th


• Chimney Tops picnic areas will remain open through the winter


• The road to Clingmans Dome is closed for the winter on December 1st


• Cosby Campgrounds closed for winter on November 1st
• Cosby picnic areas will remain open through the winter


• Deep Creek Campgrounds closed for winter on November 1st
• Deep Creek picnic areas will remain open through the winter


• Elkmont Campground is closed for the winter on December 1st


• Greenbrier picnic areas will remain open through the winter


• Look Rock Campgrounds closed for winter on November 1st


• Metcalf picnic areas will remain open through the winter


• Le Conte Lodge closed for the winter on November 20th


• Oconaluftee Visitor Center hours from November to April 8:30 am - 4:30 pm


• The Roaring Fork Motor Trail is closed for the winter on December 1st


• Round Bottom Horse Camp closed for the winter on November 12th
• Roundbottom/Straight Fork Road is closed for winter on November 12th


• Smokemont Campground becomes self-registration with a reduced number of available campsites for winter on November 1st
• Smokemont Riding Stable is closed for winter


• Smoky Mountain Riding Stables is closed for winter on November 25th


• Sugarland's Horseback Riding Stables is closed for winter on November 1st


• Sugarlands Visitor Center November hours 8:00 am - 5:00 pm


• Tow String Horse Camp closed for the winter on November 12th

Roads in the national park other then those listed as closed above will stay open all winter long unless closed due to the weather causing unsafe conditions such as ice, excessive snow, extreme winds or downed trees.

If you are unsure if a road is open during or just after bad weather you should contact the national park service in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.