Archived Outdoors
Smokies visitation high at Cherokee
Visitation has been strong in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this year, with numbers for the first six months of 2015 up 8 percent over last year.
Though all major park entrances have seen increases, the Oconaluftee entrance near Cherokee is largely responsible for increased visitation, with entrance there up 26 percent.
Overall, 4.3 million visitors have come to the nation’s most visited national park between January and June, with more than 1 million people in May alone — the most ever for that month since monthly visitation tracking began in 1979.
For more statistics, visit irma.nps.gov/stats/.
