Current black bear activity in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains national park the memorial day weekend are fairly sure to see a black bear if they spend enough early morning hours and late afternoon hours in Cades Cove or Cataloochee or deep enough in the backcountry.

Backcountry users must take exceptional care in the backcountry shelter at Mount Collins (pictured below) which has seen significant black bear activity in the past few days.

Few roads reopen in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park after winter storm

Most major roads such as the Newfound Gap Road - US 441 in the Great Smoky Mountains national park still remain closed due to snow and ice, but a few roads have been opened to traffic.

The Spur connecting Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge still remains open and now the Gatlinburg bypass is also open to drivers.

On the West end of the national park on the Tennessee side divers can now drive from Townsend to Cades Cove and around the 11 mile loop road as Laurel Creek Road between the Townsend Wye and the Cades Cove loop road as well as the Cades Cove Loop Road have just been reopened.

Tremont Road just west of the Wye off of Laurel Creek Road and the Western Foothills Parkway just outside Townsend has also opened.

As we learn of more roads that open in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park we will post updated reports.

Newfound Gap Road US 441 partial closure in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Newfound Gap Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park requires a cleanup and safety evaluation after a rock and mudslide triggered by melting ice and snow and heavy rains made the road unsafe for motorists.

The North Carolina side is closed up to Newfound Gap. Drivers can still use Newfound Gap Road from Gatlinburg Tennessee all the way up to the Newfound Gap parking area.

Updates will follow as information becomes available.

Roads open in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The park service opened some major roads in the Great Smoky Mountains national park now that the ice and snow are at manageable conditions.

Newfound Gap Road (US 441) connecting Cherokee NC and Gatlinburg TN has just opened but there is fog and ice still on the road so drivers should be cautious.

Also just opened is Little River Road which also is socked in with fog.

Road Closures in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Currently Newfound Gap Road (441) which runs through the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park connecting Cherokee NC and Gatlinburg TN remains closed due to snow and ice and is may not reopen today due to exceptionally cold weather that is expected all day.

There are some additional roads in the Great Smoky Mountains national park that just closed which are:

• The Foothills Parkway East connecting 321 to I40 in Cosby TN
• Cherokee Orchard Road in the Roaring Fork area adjacent to the city of Gatlinburg TN
• The Cataloochee Entrance Road - Maggie Valley North Carolina
• Old Route 284 connecting Big Creek and Cataloochee

Some roads that are still open in the Great Smoky mountains National Park and the surrounding areas have light snow and ice and we urge all drivers to be extremely careful.

Horseback riding stable in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park still open

People who want to ride a horse in the Great Smoky Mountains National park can still do so at the Smoky Mountain Stables located on 321 west of the city of Gatlinburg even though all the stables are normally closed this late in the season.

Until the end of the month for only $20 horseback riders can take advantage of the 1 hour guided horse back rides in the Great Smoky Mountains national park from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm 7 days a week. Excessive snow, ice or extreme cold can keep the stables from opening on a given day.

To find out more about renting a horse in the Smoky Mountains National Park check out the National Park horseback riding stables page and if the weather is questionable be sure to call (865) 436-5634 to confirm that the Smoky Mountain Stables will be open.

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.

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.

Black bears are very active in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Although there have been no recent attacks by black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains Nations Park (GSMNP), some visitors are pushing their luck given how active the black bear are in this the most active bear season of the year.

The best way to handle yourself when you see a black bear is to stay as far away as possible and never let the bear think that you are a threat to the bear or its cubs which may be close by and out of your sight. You should however act as a threat of you can not get away and are about to be attacked by a bear.

Fall season in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is usually a very active bear season which is a treat to the Millions of visitors who come to visit the park and hopefully get a glimpse or even get to take a picture or shoot video of the symbolic icon animal of the Smoky Mountains.

In the fall, the black bear in the park are in a race against time trying to gather as much food as possible before they slow down and become inactive for the winter. Black bear in the national park don't hibernate in caves during the winter as for all practical purposes there are no caves in the national park other than a sealed off cave in Cades Cove and 2 caves in the White Oak Sinks area of the park between Tremont and Cades Cove.

Black Bear in the GSMNP instead nest in hollows of trees or in a hollow tree. Bears can most often be seen high up in trees rather than on the ground. The tree in the National Park most favored by the black bear are oak trees both for the acorns they provide as food and for the shelter the older large oak trees provide to the bear.

The black bear in the fall typically eat as many nuts, berries, grasses and forbs and insects and other animals including carrion it can in an attempt to fatten up and can put on as much as 4 - 5 pounds of winter weight a day.

The female black bears will winter pregnant and the size of a litter is often dependent to the volume and quality of food the black bear acquires during the fall active season. Black bears typically have 2 or 3 cubs in a good year and just 1 or no cubs at all after a year with a limited or harder harvest.

This year's drought which has heavily affected the Smoky Mountains and the natural food stock of the black bear so the resident bears are very active in order to find the food that they need. Just don't get between a hungry bear and its food!

One of the most common questions visitors to the National park ask me is "Where can I find the most black bear in the park?" Traveling extensively through the backcountry and developed areas in both the North Carolina and Tennessee sections of the National Park I have found that the best areas of the national park to find a black bear are: The Roaring Fork section of the park by Gatlinburg Tennessee, Cades Cove typically between Sparks Lane and Hyatt Lane in the edge of the woods, backcountry areas between Cosby TN a Big Creek NC, and along the Gatlinburg Bypass on the way to Pigeon Forge. This bypass referred to as the spur will often have bear walking right across the road.

This week I have already counted 22 black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park:

• 8 along the road leading into the Roaring Fork Area before the Ogle Cabin
• 1 on the old Sugarland Trail between Roaring Fork and the Sugarlands
• 2 in the Greenbrier section on trail along the way to campground 32
• 2 in Big Cataloochee NC on the Boogerman trail near the stone walls
• 1 in Big Cataloochee NC in the back field near the old cemetery on the hill.
• 1 in Deep Creek NC Parking area
• 3 in Cades Cove area on the Scott Mountain Trail
• 2 in Cades Cove area on the Gregory Bald longer trail
• 1 in Cades Cove in woods off Hyatt Lane
• 1 in Cosby TN on the Hens Wallow Falls trail at the second fork

Although I am only counting 8 bear on Roaring Fork, the same bear I have seen 9 or 10 times I only counted as 1. I can almost guarantee that if you go to Roaring Fork in the next few days early in the morning or before sunset you will see at least 3 or 4 bear.

Unfortunately many people who are watching or photographing the black bear are not acting wisely chasing the bear up the side of the hill, whistling to get the bears attention or just stopping their car and parking in the middle of the road. All of these are forbidden behavior and illegal and can result in death or serious injury.

Bear jams are so common right now in the Roaring Fork area that often there are now up to 2 officers trying to keep park visitors under control so no one gets attacked by a black bear or hit by a driver paying attention to the bear and not the road.

My favorite is the foolish man pictured here who kept climbing the hill chasing a mother bear with her cubs and taking pictures with a camera phone. He lucky left without being attacked by the momma black bear that had her 2 cubs along for the feast of acorns on the ground and before the National Park enforcement officer arrived. Imagine risking death, dismemberment or arrest to take a poor quality picture with his cellphone that he will probably erase or lose within a year or so. Was it worth it?

The bear are fun to watch but please pay attention to the national park black bear regulations and safety rules!

8k (5 miles) Run for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Help the Great Smoky Mountains National Park through Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by participating in a 8K Run for the Park on Saturday May 5, 2007 which starts and ends at Tanger Five Oaks in Sevierville Tennessee.

Registration for this exciting event is only $12 before May 2, 2007 and $15 after May 2nd and all proceeds benefit Friends of the Smokies who help raise funds and provide volunteers for the Smoky Mountains national park.

Whether you come to help out the park, get some exercise and fresh air or have your eye on one of the Trophies, free tee shirts or door prizes you are sure to have a good time.

Trophies will be given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in:

• Overall male and female
• Sevier County male and female
• Grand Masters (50+) male and female
• All age categories male and female

The race will be run rain or shine on a level course - the Parkway to Tanger outlet mall in Pigeon Forge, and then ends back at Tanger Five Oaks. Traffic will be held back by both the Pigeon Forge and Sevierville police

Register early to make sure you get your size Tee Shirt and help the Fiends of the Smokies get a fairly accurate count of who is going to show. The registration for can be downloaded at www.yoursmokies.com/docs/raceform2007.pdf.

If you can’t or don’t want to run, come down and cheer us on!

Newfound Gap Road Closed

Newfound Gap Road (441) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is closed from Gatlinburg Tennessee through to Cherokee North Carolina while crews clean up after more than 200 trees that fell from yesterday's storm. The majority of downed tress on 441 are in North Carolina just south of Newfound Gap.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is also closed today in some sections in North Carolina.

We suggest taking I40 as an alternate to Newfound Gap Road.

Closures on Newfound Gap Road in National Park to begin

To allow for repaving on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park most popular road starting April 16th there will be temporary lane closures on the North Carolina side of Newfound Gap Road also know as US 441.

The work being done to the national parks major thoroughfare is the repaving of a 10 mile stretch of Newfound Gap Road from the Gap to the Collins Creek Picnic Area in North Carolina and the completion of this $15,316,340 contract is expected in October 2007.

The Great Smoky Mountains national park is going to use the same lane closure schedule as last season which had very little impact on park visitors.

April 16 2007 through June 14 2007

• Sunday night 10:00 pm until noon on Fridays Lane closures will be permitted.
• Fridays from noon to 10:00 pm no lane closures will be allowed.
• Saturdays and Sundays between 8:00 am and 10:00 pm No lane closures will be allowed.

June 15 2007 through August 15 2007

• No day time lane closures will be allowed only night closures permitted to close lanes at night.
• Monday through Thursday from 9:00 pm to 8:00 am night closures can be imposed.
• Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 pm until 8:00 am night closures may occur.

August 16 2007 through September 30 2007

• Fridays from noon to 10:00 pm no lane closures will be allowed
• Saturdays and Sundays between 8:00 am and 10:00 pm no lane closures will be allowed
• Monday 8:00 am until noon on Fridays lane closures will be permitted

All September 2007

• Weekends - day or night - No lane closures will be allowed

Smokies North Shore "Road to Nowhere" may be a dead issue

Congressional members from both North Carolina and Tennessee have asked to end the long dispute over the building of a road promised to Swain County North Carolina in 1943.

For the most part, only local Smoky mountain residents are aware of this controversial issue that has divided resident for years. If this road was constructed it would have cost at least $600 million of federal monies and its continued upkeep and negative environmental impacts would have been a never ending burden to the National Park Service as well as the flora and fauna of the Great Smoky Mountains National park.

When the Fontana Dam was built in the 1940s the existing road in the area was flooded and in 1943 the federal government made a commitment to Swain County to replace the flooded road. In 1946 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could in fact satisfy the commitment to Swain County North Carolina in ways other than the replacement of the road.

In 1972 the construction of the road was halted even though Congress provided the funding as the excessive construction costs, environment concerns in regard to the roads construction as well as the continued impact of the additional traffic to the area were clearly not in the best interests of US citizens, local and federal government, and the environmental and cultural resources of the national park.

When the damn was built, access other than by boat was cut off to certain areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Families who historically lived in area that became part of the national park no longer were able to visit their ancestors in the 26 cemeteries that became landlocked. To compensate for this Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials would ferry approximately 1,200 residents a year across Fontana Lake in order to these visit cemeteries on designated days.

Now Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has been approached by no less than 17 members of congress from North Carolina and Tennessee to agree to a cash settlement of $52 million within 90 days for Swain County and end the longtime dispute over whether the road should be finished. It is expected that Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will respond to the members of Congress before June.

The congressional members are only echoing the vast majority of opinions and the National parks department has received more than 75,000 comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed road.

Don Barger, Southeast regional director of National Parks Conservation Association commented "This is the first time we've had this level of support for this decision...This part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the wrong place for development"

What will Swain County do with the settlement? The officials would save the principal and use the estimated $2.5 million in interest it would generate each year to help improve both the Swain County's schools and public safety.

We feel as though this is a strong win for everyone. This is the most pristine area of the national park and this hidden jewel offers benefits for the occupants of the park as well as the few lucky visitors who know about and visit this area of the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

NPS hosts First Centennial Listening Session in Gatlinburg Tennessee

Even though the National Park services 100th birthday is 9 years away, the park service is going to receive significant public and private investments in order to strengthen and reinvigorate the national parks across the United States in time for the Centennial.

In the next 3 weeks a series of 14 conferences will be held across the country where Interior Secretary Kempthorne, National Park Service (NPS) Director Mary Bomar and NPS Southeast Regional Director Patricia Hooks will ask for citizens' ideas and visions for the Centennial and the park service. The ultimate goal is to find ways to restore and better protect the national parks natural, cultural and historic resources which are under attack by man and nature and whose programs are presently under funded.

New and improved national park visitor centers, campgrounds, trails and other national park facilities along with more programs led by rangers are being proposed as well as stimulating both greater volunteerism and philanthropy.

This opening session is going to be held this Tuesday, March 13, 2007 from 6 pm to 8 pm at the W L Mills Conference Center located at 234 Historic Nature Trail in Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738.

People who attend this public meeting should focus their questions and comments on the following questions:

1. Think of your children and grandchildren enjoying national parks in 2016 and beyond. How do you imagine their visit? What are your hopes and expectations?
2. What role do you think national parks should play in the lives of Americans and visitors from around the world?
3. What are the signature projects and programs that you think should be highlighted for completion over the next 10 years?

I find it fitting that the who tour starts at the Great Smoky Mountains National park the most popular national park in the National park system.

National Parks benefit from Digital Cameras.

When talking with a National Park official of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park almost 2 weeks ago I suddenly had a realization about how much the proliferation of digital photography has helped the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and for that mater all national parks in the United States.

The funny thing is that all these years traveling in national and state parks around the country hiking trails, fishing, boating, and horseback riding in all the nooks and crannies of these parks that it took until now to realize how tremendous the positive effect of this new technology.

As you can see by yesterday's article on littering in the Smokies, I hate litter bugs. Whether I am hiking on a trail or snorkeling on a reef, I clean up trash when I see it. Over the years I have picked up trash of all sorts from beer cans to old shoes and hundreds and hundreds of 35mm film canisters, empty Kodak and Fuji film boxes and my fair share of used flash bulbs, flash cubes and flash sticks.

While most serious nature photographers that visit our national parks are great protectors of the environment, many amateur and professional photographers have been careless over the years and tossed or lost photographic trash on and around trails and waterways within our national and state parks and forests.

I also gave great thought to all the chemicals used in the manufacturer of the film itself and as well as the processing and the printing let alone the plastics, metal film and cardboard used in the packaging of 35mm or other size photographic film.

All is not golden however with digital outdoor photography. The excessive use and improper disposal of batteries can be a huge environmental disadvantage of digital cameras. The chemicals and the heavy metals inside the common household battery can do far more damage to the environment and its inhabitants than the cardboard and plastic packaging ever could.

The environmental damage of the batteries from digital camera could very easily be avoided by simply having enough rechargeable batteries on hand. Not only would this save any photographer a bundle over the lifetime of the camera, it would greatly reduce the environmental impact of digital photography to virtually zero.

I close with a quick outdoor digital photography tip for those photographing the great outdoors in the Smoky Mountains. Turn your flash off when taking pictures during a snow fall or foggy weather. Both snow and fog reflect your flash making for very poor pictures.

Here's to taking great pictures in one of the most beautiful places in the world - the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the surrounding areas in the Smoky Mountains!