Category: Area Info

A completion date for roadwork on Newfound Gap Road looks to be within sight. Round the clock roadwork has been ongoing according to the contractor repairing US 441 (Newfound Gap Road) – the site of a January landslide took out a large, football field-sized section in North Carolina.

Accordingly, the main road between Gatlinburg, TN, and Cherokee, N.C., is scheduled to reopen by May 15. Incentives have been put into place if the work is done earlier and there are penalties if the project falls behind schedule.

Officials with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park tell the Knoxville News Sentinel that Phillips & Jordan Inc. of Robbinsville, N.C., started working through the night this past week to speed up the completion date so that it would be finished by the summer tourism season.

In January, heavy rainfall and an underground stream combined to loosen thousands of tons of rock, soil and trees, which slid the length a football field down a slope during the mid point of the month.

A football field-sized gap now makes up the roadway. Officials say an estimated 9,000 dump truck-loads of dirt, rock and roadway crashed 45-50 feet down the side of the mountain.

Engineers believe a subsurface spring underneath the area was a large factor in causing the landslide. It’s unknown how long the spring had been there. That, combined with the heavy rain that week, caused the collapse. In all, 8 inches of rain fell in the area between Monday and Wednesday the week of January 14.

At the time, it was considered an active landslide because of the continuously flowing springs underneath the road’s surface.

The Society of American Travel Writers has included the lights of Winterfest on its list of The Top 10 Lesser-Known (But Just as Bright!) Holiday Lights in the U.S.

Winterfest lights are displayed in the cities of Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. The display ranks 8th on the society’s list, which also includes light displays in Kauai, Hawaii; Charlotte, N.C.; Pine Mountain, Ga.; and Louisville, Ky.

The Winterfest lights will remain lit through this month.

“Designs include snowflakes, rocking horses, waterfalls, trains, bears, a gristmill and toy soldiers, all lining the Parkway leading to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” the society notes.

“I guess it’s no surprise that people are recognizing our beauty,” said Brenda McCroskey, Chief Executive Officer of the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. “A lot of people have been coming here to enjoy the holiday festivals and the shopping, for a long time.”

But, she added, “There has not been that much recognition on a national level.”

Based in Milwaukee, Wis., the Society of American Travel Writers is an organization of more than 1,100 journalists, public relations workers and other professionals. It was founded in 1955.

“Notices like these are much more powerful than direct advertising,” said McCroskey of the list. “This comes from an unbiased source. This says someone else who has credentials thinks we’re doing a good job.”

Honors related to Sevier County’s winter offerings are rare, McCroskey said. “We tend to get recognition more for springtime and summertime activities.”

Winterfest was established to boost the Sevier County economy during the cold months. Upcoming Winterfest events include Wilderness Wildlife Week, the Tennessee Winter Special Olympics and the Rose Glen Literary Festival.

Though the recent Jan. 16 landslide destroyed nearly 200 feet of Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441), most park activities and destinations remain open and accessible to visitors.

This according to officials with the park who said some roads are still being cleared on the Tennessee side due to debris from recent storms, “but as far as Newfound Gap, you can access all the hiking trails around there, and everything that’s normally open along that road. It’s just that small section past Newfound Gap Road, just a little past the parking lot, that’s closed.”

So campgrounds, trails and picnic areas, as well as popular destinations like Cades Cove and the views at Newfound Gap near the border, are still open, and everything will stay open barring inclement weather.

Basically, the only thing visitors can’t do is get to Cherokee, N.C., via Newfound Gap Road. That, and they also can’t see the landslide, though several people at the Sugarlands Visitor Center had come to the park Thursday for that reason.

Many have come to the park specifically to see the landslide and just pass the time for curiosity’s sake. But, unfortunately, those people are being turned away from that specific area of Newfound Gap Road. National park officials have said that no one would be allowed to see the landslide for themselves.

Of course, January and February are lower-visitation months for the park, so the indefinite closure won’t affect tourism as much as it could have.

Still, the park is doing whatever it can to spread word that most of its attractions are still open.

“I’ve had people stop in and think they couldn’t get past Sugarlands, but that’s incorrect,” on park official said. “There are some people coming in, but I hope to get the word out that there is still access further into the park.”

They said there’s still no timeline for when the park reopens the closed portion of Newfound Gap Road, and as far as the trails on that portion, officials are assessing the situation.

“We’re looking at what impact it has on the trails and finalizing ideas on what we could do to have access on those trails or educate people about what’s going to happen until the road’s completely fixed.”

The section of Newfound Gap Road that was washed away due to heavy rainfall last week is still influx as park officials attempt to figure out how to repair that portion of U.S. Highway 441 through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s primarily recognized as the main connector road between Gatlinburg and Cherokee, N.C.

A football field-sized gap now makes up the roadway. Officials say an estimated 9,000 dump truck-loads of dirt, rock and roadway crashed 45-50 feet down the side of the mountain.

Engineers believe a subsurface spring underneath the area was a large factor in causing the landslide. It’s unknown how long the spring had been there. That, combined with the heavy rain that week, caused the collapse. In all, 8 inches of rain fell in the area between Monday and Wednesday the week of January 14.

It’s still considered an active landslide because of the continuously flowing springs underneath the road’s surface.

When it ill be fixed is still anyone’s guess. The National Park Service is working with the Department of Federal Highways to come up with a plan, as well as the Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division (EFLH) to assist in the initial evaluation of the slide and develop repair solutions. Engineers have been on site since last week. The hope is that by the end of next week officials will know when construction can commence and how much it will cost.

During its busiest days, the 31-mile stretch of Newfound Gap Road can have up to 7,000 cars travel along it.

Newfound Gap Road will be open to visitors from the Gatlinburg entrance in Tennessee to the Newfound Gap parking lot as soon as it is possible. The road is open to Smokemont on the North Carolina side.

Sugarlands Visitor Center in Gatlinburg is getting a facelift, of sorts. In actuality, its lobby and visitor contact area are being renovated in order to improve the layout of the building’s main space.

That doesn’t mean you can’t still stop by as officials said the building would remain open through March 31, when the project is scheduled to be completed.

For the visitors center, it will be a welcome change to the building’s aesthetics, “many of whom find the current museum entrance to be difficult to locate,” said Molly Schroer, park spokesperson. “This renovation will alleviate that problem.”

Interactive exhibits will enhance park information for all visitors coming into Sugarlands. The center’s lighting system will be overhauled, as well as the information desk and the building’s overall accessibility. The aforementioned interactive exhibits in the lobby will highlight the park’s recent natural resource challenges, such as forest health and air quality.

Constructed in 1960, the Sugarlands Visitors Center sees thousands of park visitors come through its doors every year. Until 2011, when the Oconaluftee Visitor Center was constructed, Sugarlands was the only visitor center in the Great Smoky Mountains that was built specifically as a visitor center.

Park rangers provide the public with educational programs at Sugarlands Visitors Center including talks surrounding the park’s first settlers, edible wild plants that grow along the trails, or a simple GSMNP history lesson. The talks and presentations are specifically developed for Sugarlands by the Park Service. One good move might be to contact the visitors center before coming to the park to see what programs are running during your specified trip.

Another reason to visit Sugarlands is if you plan staying overnight in the Great Smoky Mountains at a campground or backcountry site. Not only can you make reservations at one of the park’s campgrounds, Sugarlands is an ideal place to make lodging plans for one of the park’s backcountry shelters. Each backcountry shelter must be reserved as they are managed by the park service. For anyone planning an overnight trip on one of the trails, make plans to stay in one of the shelters. Any of the Sugarlands park rangers will be able to help you out with that process.

Construction work will occur between 2 – 11 p.m. daily, Monday through Friday, through the end of March. During construction, the natural history museum portion of the visitor center will be closed. All other services, including general information, the park film, and the bookstore will be open.

Today is the LAST DAY folks to recycle your Christmas Tree. Let Gatlinburg take care of your tree instead of dragging it down to the curb and waiting for it to be picked up for weeks, or even months sometimes. In return, you might even get something you didn’t expect but will leave you smiling regardless.

Today, Thursday Jan. 3, 2013, is the last day that the city of Gatlinburg will offer its annual Christmas tree exchange. Anyone who wants to bring their Christmas tree to the city greenhouse from 3-5 p.m. will in turn receive a late Christmas gift from the city in the form of a pecan, bald cypress or tulip poplar tree. Sort of a tree for a tree to plant on your own and watch grow.

The city greenhouse is located next to the Gatlinburg Community Center at 156 Proffitt Road.

Each tree will be recycled and put to good use, mulched up, and put through a chipper. The mulch is then used to fertilize the ground around city plants.

This is now a program that has been ongoing for 10 years now and continues every year right after New Years. Anyone who does not want to participate in the exchange, but still wants to drop their Christmas tree off can still do so at the greenhouse any time until Tuesday, Jan. 8.

For those who live closer to Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, Christmas trees also can be dropped off for recycling at the Pigeon Forge Community Center parking lot through Friday, Jan. 4. Or, if you’d just assume to leave your tree at the curb, Sevier County Public Works officials report that they will be by to pick up trees left outside by city garbage customers this year. Those trees will also be mulched at the Sevier County Solid Waste facility.