2023 A Look Back: Meter Maid Award

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has earned this one for its decision to begin charging for parking, effective March 1 this year. 

Four months of fees: Smokies reports high revenues, compliance following parking fee implementation

When new fees went into effect  in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park March 1, park managers were expecting limited revenues and limited compliance during their inaugural year enforcing the Smokies’ first-ever parking fee. But four months in, both metrics are coming in higher than anticipated. 

Park it Forward: Congress won’t pay for Smokies maintenance backlog — you will

After years of inaction by Congress led to a massive $262 million deferred maintenance backlog in America’s most-visited national park, it will now be up to visitors to pony up their own money to support the park’s most basic staffing and maintenance needs.

Smokies parking tag program takes effect

Starting March 1, any vehicle parked in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for more than 10 minutes must display a valid parking tag as the “Park it Forward” program takes effect. 

Cemetery committee chair under fire after whistleblower resignation

On the same day her concerns about a parking issue were published, a Waynesville Cemetery Committee whistleblower resigned after the committee’s chair chastised her via email and made problematic comments about the First Amendment, public records laws and open meetings statutes.

Waynesville cemetery committee 
will address parking issues

Haywood County residents have always been very protective — and particular — about Waynesville’s historic Green Hill Cemetery, but at least one member of the Waynesville Cemetery Committee is looking to head off disaster before it becomes another public relations nightmare.

Pay to play: Smokies parking tags now on sale

Starting March 1, Great Smoky Mountains National Park visitors will have to pay to park. As the date approaches and annual parking tags go on sale, park management is working to iron out the details and communicate them to the public.

Smokies adopts parking fee

Starting March 1, visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will no longer be completely free — a first for park history.

N.C. House opposes Smokies parking fee

The N.C. House of Representatives last week condemned the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s controversial proposal to enact a parking fee with passage of a resolution  that calls on Congress to block the plan.

At a crossroads: Parking fee would signal a new era in Smokies history

Since its official opening in 1934, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been free  to enter, to park, to hike, to explore. The intervening years have made free access a core principle of the park’s identity, cherished by residents of gateway communities like Bryson City and Gatlinburg — many of whom are descendants of the families forced from their homes to make way for the park’s creation.

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