Pancake house has been serving Smoky Mountains visitors for 50 years

With the majesty of the Smoky Mountains as a backdrop, the Pancake Pantry in Gatlinburg has been serving locals and visitors alike for 50 years. Located in an endless row of T-shirt shops, candy stores and hotels, it's offered a tasty start for tourists in the resort town before they ...

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Gatlinburg in the Spring

With spring nearly here, Gatlinburg has never been more ready to greet the season. A great place to bring the family over Spring Break, a trip to Gatlinburg and Great Smoky Mountains National Park will allow you to get ouside and experience the park as it awakens from winter’s ...

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Great Smoky park officials say it's unlikely Caughron barn at will be rebuilt

During a recent storm in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, high winds toppled trees and caused damage that work crews still are scrambling to clean up. On top of 3,481-foot-high Cove Mountain, where the National Park Service maintains a weather and air-quality monitoring station, wind speeds that night were measured ...

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Public art to celebrate Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Waynesville Public Art Commission recently issued a Call for Artists for its fourth public art project. The proposed art will celebrate the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and its historic relationship to Waynesville. For many years an arched sign hung across Main Street declaring Waynesville the “Eastern Entrance to ...

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Smokies park struggling to clamp down on hog infestation

There are few places where wild hogs are less welcome than in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park's hog population traces its lineage to the early 1920s, when a herd of European hogs escaped from a game reserve on Hooper's Bald in the mountains of Graham County, N.C. ...

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Photographer explores the Smoky Mountain National Park in quiet light

If a book can make you want to hop in your ride and head out on a road trip, Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes by Evanston, Ill., photographer Richard Mack might do it. As the name of his company, Quiet Light Publishing, suggests, these are ...

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Smokies lab building gets LEED certification

The Twin Creeks Science and Education Center at Great Smoky Mountains National Park has received certification at the Gold Level under the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System. The LEED certification process evaluates structures based upon five environmental categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, ...

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Celebrate the Holidays in our Parks

Here’s our roundup of holiday events at parks across the country.   Red Rock Fantasy, Sedona, AZ Celebrate the Christmas season at the Annual Red Rock Fantasy in Sedona, Arizona, near Red Rock Canyon State Park. As the sun sets, Sedona comes to life with a dazzling display of more than a ...

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Today is the date the park movement got its start

Today is the 110th anniversary of the birth of the Smokies as a park. On Nov. 22-23, 1899, the region's progressive leaders gathered at the Battery Park Hotel in Asheville to create the Appalachian National Park Association. A month later, the group sent a petition to Congress requesting a park, and it became the ...

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Memorial Fund for Elk No. 21 of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

He was known simply as Elk No. 21, an icon of bull elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park - one of the biggest in the valley, said park spokesman Bob Miller. On Friday morning, Nov. 13, Elk No. 21 was shot and killed by a poacher in Cataloochee Valley. A memorial ...

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Winter Magic abounds in Gatlinburg

Gatlinburg is aglow with holiday spirit as Winter Magic takes to the streets of downtown. Follow the holiday lights to an enchanting, four-month celebration of winter and the holiday season, perfect for the whole family. Experience the magic of the Higher Ground Spirit with a series of whimsical performances, parades and other ...

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North Carolina man confesses to poaching elk in GSMNP

A North Carolina man is facing charges for allegedly shooting a bull elk inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. GSMNP spokesman Bob Miller said rangers found a bull carcass around 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 13. It was lying along the edge of a pasture in the Cataloochee area of Haywood ...

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Top 10: Parks with American Indian Significance

In recognition of American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month, OhRanger has compiled our 10 favorite parks with American Indian and Alaska Native significance. Many of our parks are rich in history so in order to fully appreciate the public lands that we visit, we must understand their past. ...

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Asheville almost didn't get Blue Ridge Parkway route

It is hard to imagine Asheville without the Blue Ridge Parkway.For most visitors and locals, it seems as though the 469-mile road has always wound through the mountains of Western North Carolina, providing stunning views and access to miles of hiking.But its peaceful vistas, bucolic cabins and split rail fences can conceal the complex ...

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Smokies taking volunteers to map ash trees

Researchers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are inviting people to volunteer as Citizen Scientists from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday to map locations of ash trees in the park. Volunteers will learn how to identify ash and other common trees found in the Smoky Mountains, read a topographic map, and use a ...

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