User:Emmamlewis/Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Attractions and activities

The Alum Cave Trail to the summit of Mount LeConte provides numerous views of the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a major tourist attraction in the region. It has been the most visited national park for many years, with over 14.1 million recreational visitors (tourists) in 2021. The recreational figure represents nearly twice as many tourists as the Grand Canyon, which received nearly 6 million visitors the same year. Surrounding towns, notably Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Townsend, Tennessee, and Cherokee, Sylva, Maggie Valley, and Bryson City, North Carolina, receive a significant portion of their income from tourism associated with the park.

The two main visitor centers inside the park are Sugarlands Visitors' Center near the Gatlinburg entrance to the park and Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, North Carolina, at the eastern entrance to the park. These ranger stations provide exhibits on wildlife, geology, and the history of the park. They also sell books, maps, and souvenirs. Entrance into the park is free.

U.S. Highway 441 (known in the park as Newfound Gap Road) bisects the park, providing automobile access to many trailheads and overlooks, most notably that of Newfound Gap. At an elevation of 5,048 feet (1,539 m), it is the lowest gap in the mountains and is situated near the center of the park, on the Tennessee/North Carolina state line, halfway between the border towns of Gatlinburg and Cherokee. It was here that in 1940, from the Rockefeller Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the national park. On clear days Newfound Gap offers arguably the most spectacular scenes accessible via highway in the park.

The park has a number of historical attractions. The most well-preserved of these (and most popular) is Cades Cove, a valley with a number of preserved historic buildings including log cabins, barns, and churches. Cades Cove is the single most frequented destination in the national park. Self-guided automobile and bicycle tours offer the many sightseers a glimpse into the way of life of old-time southern Appalachia. Other historical areas within the park include Roaring Fork, Cataloochee, Elkmont, and the Mountain Farm Museum and Mingus Mill on the Oconaluftee River.

Rules and Regulations

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has a variety of attractions and activities to offer and attracts an extensive amount of tourists. The National Park Service has a set of rules and regulations as well as safety and etiquette guidelines for visitors of the parks. There are two specific documents that present the laws that are enforced in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and these include the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Chapter 1 and the Compendium of Regulations.

Some of the laws that visitors should be aware of before visiting are outlined below.

• Approaching any wildlife within 50 yards or within any distance that disturbs or displaces wildlife is prohibited.
• Feeding wildlife is prohibited.
• Dogs and other pets (except service animals) are prohibited on any park trail except the Gatlinburg Trail and the Oconoluftee River Trail.
• Graffiti/vandalism, the destroying, inuring, defacing, or damaging property or real property is prohibited.
• Drones and other unmanned aircraft shall not be operated within the boundaries of the national park.
• Alcoholic beverages that have been opened are not permitted in the park except designated picnic areas, frontcountry and backcountry campgrounds and shelters.
• Picking plants or removing any object from the national park is prohibited.
• Permits are required for all overnight stays in the front and backcountry.
• Only heat-treated firewood that is bundled and certified by the United States Department of Agriculture or a state department of agriculture may be brought into the park.
• Bicycles are not permitted on any park trail except the Gatlinburg Trail, the Oconoluftee River Trail, and that portion of the graveled road now existing from the Deep Creek Trail head to the end of the gravel on the Indian Creek Trail.
• Metal detectors and mineral detectors are not permitted in the national park.
• Permits are required for special events, scattering of human ashes, commercial photography, commercial vehicles passing through the park, demonstrations including the Sale of Distribution of Print Matter, and weddings.

These rules and regulations