Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Roads Open: The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Due to potential hazardous condition on some of the roads in the Great Smoky Mountains national park, some of the roads within the park closed for the winter season. These roads will start opening as of this Friday March 9th. Please note some of these roads in the National park will be opening as late as June.

The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail near Gatlinburg Tennessee, Rich Mountain road which runs from Cades Cove to Townsend TN and Little Greenbrier between Metcalf Bottoms and the Wear Valley park entrance as well as Straight Fork/Round Bottom will all be opening March 9th.

The road leading up to Clingmans Dome is set to open on April 1. This is a great opportunity now to park your car at Newfound Gap and hike the 7 miles up to the top on the paved road. Wonderful vistas await you and in weeks this area will see considerable traffic when it opens.

May 11th will see both the Heintooga Ridge and the Balsam Mountain Roads opening to vehicles.

Parson Branch Road in the tail end of Cades Cove has been closed since 2003 as it sustained considerable flood damage. When it opens in mid June of this year you will be able to drive from Cades Cove all the way to North Carolina and end up on US 129 - right in the heart of the Tail of the Dragon.

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