Every morning, Kimberly Baxter leaves her home in Pigeon Forge long before most of its residents have hit their first snooze button. She’s on the road toward Cades Cove by 5 a.m., reaching her first stop of the day in the Cable Mill area by 6:30 a.m.

“I feel like I’m doing something that’s important, you know?” she said. “I just feel like I’m helping people.”

Bill Lea says he’s not a morning person. Yet many days, he’s up before the sun, hurrying toward the western portion of Foothills Parkway to catch its first rays as they light up Rich Mountain and swath Townsend in golden beams.

“This is what I love doing: chasing the light,” Lea says, easing his Subaru into park at one of his favorite overlooks. “All the subjects we shoot, everybody shoots — the only thing that makes the subject different is the light that you capture.”

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is requesting tips from the public to aid in an ongoing investigation of 33 black vultures (Coragyps atratus) dumped on the Foothills Parkway. 

On April 6 at approximately noon, Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers reported a large number of dead birds along the side of the road on Foothills Parkway West.

Who’s in charge of the chickens at the Mountain Farm Museum in Great Smoky Mountains National Park? According to the National Park Service, it’s Interpretive Park Ranger Michael Smith. But the chickens themselves recognize the authority of the large, golden rooster that struts among them — the unchallenged leader of the Oconaluftee flock.  

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has transitioned its backcountry permit reservation system to Recreation.gov. This transition will improve reliability, security and customer support for backcountry users.  

Visitors with existing reservations do not need to do anything — the park will honor all permits issued before the switch. 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will offer Cades Cove cehicle-free days every Wednesday from May 6 to Sept. 30. These designated days give pedestrians and cyclists an opportunity to experience the 11-mile Cades Cove Loop Road without motor vehicles. 

The National Park Service urge visitors to plan ahead, prepare for changing conditions and know their personal limits while recreating in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Park rangers have been responding to an increased number of emergencies and are reminding visitors that rescue is not a certainty.  

Beginning May 4, Great Smoky Mountains National Park will close Bullhead Trail from Monday through Thursday each week, excluding federal holidays, through Nov. 19. During this time, the park will continue the rehabilitation of the Bullhead Trail in partnership with Friends of the Smokies.  

Hikers are welcome to hike Bullhead Trail Friday through Sunday and on federal holidays. 

A trip through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a beautiful, often nervous drive, as hundreds of thousands of tourists visit every year, and most do not know how to drive in the mountains. This is especially true trying to navigate winding mountain roads while looking at all of the long-range views. 

 At the foot of the Kuwohi Observation Tower at the highest peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail unveiled a new stone marker for the trail’s western terminus.

The unveiling marks a milestone moment for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a 1,175-mile footpath that crosses North Carolina from the Tennessee state line at Kuwohi to the Atlantic Ocean at Jockey’s Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks.