Newfound Gap Road US 441 between Cherokee and Gatlinburg Open After Rockslide Closure Last Night

The Great Smoky Mountains national park has seen more than its share of rockslides and landslides this last few months and yesterday was no exception as a rockslide near Mile Marker 19 on Newfound Gap Road took its toll or the roadway and drivers patience.

Fortunately, the rockslide took place new an overlook with a large parking area so that traffic could be diverted through the parking area while the Newfound Gap roadway was still open and cleanup and barriers were put onto place.

Last night the park service closed the entire length of Newfound Gap Road at 8:00 pm in case further debris fell off the hillside at night into traffic. Even before the road was closed an extensive system of barriers was set up which has been augmented with the addition of concrete barriers to keep any further debris from Newfound Gap Road US 441 which opened today at 7 am.

Drive slowly through the area and expect traffic diversions and the potential to having to come to a complete stop in around the landslide/rockslide area. The park service is waiting to see if the area has been stabilized or if in fact large equipment needs to scrape off and remove any loose debris.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park needs more volunteers for the Elk Bugle Corp Program.

If you love the Great Smoky Mountains national park, wild animals, history and working with people this an opportunity you just can't pass up.

You will only be paid in sunsets, sunrises and lots of smiles in the beautiful Cataloochee valley teaching people about and help protect our valuable herd of North American Elk in the Smokies.

If you become a volunteer Elk Bugle Corp member, you will have the opportunity to work alongside more than 80 other volunteers who work in the valley who also love nature and the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

To be an Elk Bugle Corp Volunteer you must be able to work at least 2 scheduled 4-hour shifts a month from May until November and you should enjoy working around people.

Your job will be to promote safe and ethical wild life viewing, educate park visitors about the elk restoration program in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and their behavior, and help with traffic management in the busy seasons especially in the rut season from late September through November.

You should also enjoy being outdoors and various weather conditions and have patience when dealing with the public. The rewards are tremendous when you are a volunteer Elk Bugle Corp member knowing that you are helping educate people about the park, its inhabitants, its colorful history and protecting the park.

Just the simple act of a park volunteer securing garbage pail lids and keeping bear out of the trash containers and getting acclimated to human food, protect our beloved black bear and park visitors from having too close and encounter with a black bear.

The park will train all volunteers with a full day of training that you must attend on either the last week in April or the first week in May.

If you are interested in joining the ranks of the Elk Bugle Corp in the Great Smoky Mountains national park RSVP to Ranger Mark LaShell at mark_lashell@nps.gov (E-mail is preferred) or call (828)269-3161. Once signed up you can attend one of 2 informational meetings and new volunteer orientation sessions that will take place in the Cataloochee Valley at the ranger station on April 15 and 17, from 1 pm to 5 pm.

If you would like to help the Elk Bugle Corp Volunteer program and cannot join the program, you can contribute to the programs enormous success by supporting the Elk Bugle Corp program with a financial contribution of any size to the Bull Elk 21 Memorial Fund set through Friends of the Smokies.

Last year members of the Elk Bugle Corp who had contact with more than 85,000 visitors volunteered more than 7,000 hours. Won't you come join us and support us?

2nd Rockslide in Days Closes Portion of Little River Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains national park has been dealing with numerous rockslides within the park boundaries and 2 large large rockslides along the Spur connecting Gatlinburg with Pigeon Forge Tennessee. Today crews are inspecting another rockslide along the same section of Little River Road between Metcalf Bottoms and the Townsend Wye that was closed last week.

Presently there is no estimated time in which this section of Little River Road will be able to be reopened. Therefore car, motorcycle, van and light pickup truck traffic is being detoured in and out of the park at the Metcalf Bottoms Picnic area through Wears Gap and back in and out of the park for non commercial vehicles of all sizes at the Townsend Wye. Motor homes cannot cross the Metcalf Bottoms Bridge over the Little River and must take an alternate route of Wears Valley Road (321) when traveling between Pigeon Forge and Townsend.

Besides numerous weather related closures the Great Smoky Mountains national park has had to content with all winter, construction in Cades Cove, Clingmans Dome, Balsam Mountain Heintooga, Cherokee Orchard/Roaring Fork Motor Trail and Smokemont is severely limiting access to drivers and visitors of the park.

• Road conditions and closures in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Weather and rockslides deliver knockout punch to drivers in the NC and TN Great Smoky Mountains.

Drivers trying to back and forth from Tennessee and North Carolina had to contented with I-40 being closed by the NC-TN border by a huge rockslide for months, Old 284 between Big Creek and Cataloochee being closed for most of the winter due to snow, ice and downed trees, Newfound Gap Road closing often due to snow, ice and storm damage and now 129 - "the Dragon" is partially blocked due to rockslide.

Snowfall last night closed Newfound Gap Road though lower elevation roads in the park that are not closed due to construction or Old 284 which has been closed for weeks due to so many trees down, snow, ice and washout areas remain open.

Yesterday morning even though the weather was warm in lower elevations, dangerous icy conditions between Newfound Gap Parking area and Clingmans Dome Road caused a Tennessee driver of a truck along with a passenger to slide off the road and down the bank.

Park rangers arriving at the scene determine that the truck was very precarious and had to wait for rescue crews and tow trucks to arrive to stabilize the vehicle in order to keep it from falling down the mountainside before they could free the passengers who remarkably did not suffer serous injuries from such a crash.

Drivers need to use extreme caution when driving this time of the year as lower elevations can be in the 60's and dangerous ice can be on the roadways in higher elevations or in shaded areas.

Today and tomorrow calls from more snowfall and freezing temperatures and even it Newfound Gap Reopens expect that it may close again especially as melting snow and ice refreezes in the latter parts of the day.

Rockslide closes portion of Little River Road in the Great Smoky Mountains national park

Another rockslide in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park along Little River Road forced the park service to close the section of roadway to all traffic between Metcalf Bottoms and the Townsend Wye.

Fortunately, the Sinks area is already closed to all traffic and pedestrian due to construction so no popular areas are directly affected by the closure.

This winter there have been numerous rockslides along the Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge Spur and Little River Road. While some of these rockslides have taken weeks to remove excess debris and complete slope stabilization, initial reports on this slide state that Little River Road will be open to traffic very quickly.