Travel: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is United State National Park. The park was chartered by the United States Congress in 1934 and officially devoted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. The area of this park is about 522,419 acres (816.28 sq mi; 2,114.15 km² which is one of the largest sheltered areas in the eastern United States. The major park entrances are positioned along U.S. Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road) at the towns of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and Cherokee, North Carolina.

                               

Natural features: 

Elevations in the park range from 876 feet (267 m) at the mouth of Abrams Creek to 6,643 feet (2,025 m) at the summit of Clingmans Dome. Inside the park a total of sixteen mountains reach higher than 6,000 feet (1829 m).

                                          

The park generally has very high wetness and precipitation, averaging from 55 inches (1,400 mm) per year in the valleys to 85 inches (2,200 mm) per year on the peaks. This is more yearly rainfall than anywhere in the United States outside the Pacific Northwest and parts of Alaska. It is also normally cooler than the lower elevations below, and most of the park has a humid continental temperature more comparable to locations much farther north, as opposed to the humid subtropical climate in the lowlands. The park is almost 95 percent forested, and almost 36 percent of it, 187,000 acres (760 km²), is estimated by the Park Service to be old increase forest with many trees that predate European settlement of the area. It is one of the biggest blocks of deciduous, temperate, old growth forest in North America.

 

                                      

 

Attractions and activities:

 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a main tourist attraction in the region. Over 9 million visitors and 11 million non-recreational visitors visited to the park in 2003, twice as many as visited any other national park. Surrounding towns, notably Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Townsend, Tennessee, and Cherokee, Sylva, Maggie Valley, and Bryson City, North Carolina accept a significant portion of their income from tourism associated with the park.

                                       

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

                                  

More Information  for how to go:

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