news links

Entertainment ...

--Historic Old-Time Music CD to be released in October; Park Service needs help finding musicians and descendants

--Ansel Adams Gallery announces Photo Contest

--Barnstormer debuts at Dollywood in 2011

--Oconaluftee Indian Village open for season

--Qualla Arts Open-Air Market Sept. 4

--Southeastern Tribes come together for celebration
 

Outdoors ...

--Podcast emphasizes water safety and day hiking

--Volunteer trail work planned for Public Lands Day recognition

--Sunny Side Trail is new Scenic Byway

--Hike the Smokies video teaches bear safety

National Park ...

--DUI checkpoints throughout September in the Smokies

--Cast your vote for your favorite National Park

--Comments sought on Park's plan for long-term elk management

--Great Smoky Mountains National Park Service launches Hike the Smokies challenge

Smoky Mountain Harvest Festival underway

GATLINBURG - If you’re coming to the mountains, it only makes sense to stay in the mountains, and autumn is worthy of a front-row seat in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Smoky Mountain Harvest Festival season finds the folks of Gatlinburg decorating and celebrating the beginning of fall with a variety of events and festivals in Tennessee.

September’s warm, sunny days and cool, clear nights mix with just the right amount of rain to transform 800 square miles of lush green forest into a brilliant palette of vibrant autumnal colors.

The Great Smoky Mountains share center stage with the Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair during the month of October. From Oct. 7 through 23, 2010, the award-winning Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair opens the doors of the Gatlinburg Convention Center to the public with the 35th Annual Fall Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair, one of the many amazing fall festivals in Tennessee.

Numerous artisans and craftspeople are on-hand each day to demonstrate their skills, answer questions, and offer their unique art for sale. Third-generation artisans and storekeepers strive to match the beauty of the autumn mountains by carrying the same colors into often elaborate storefront decorations, thus turning their little mountain town into a promenade of Southern Appalachian sights.

Arts and crafts have long held a deep association with the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community, established in 1937, is the largest group of independent artisans in North America.

Located on an eight-mile loop at the northeast corner of Gatlinburg, the Community proudly preserves the craft heritage of the Great Smoky Mountains year-round. This area offers the best in a wide range of craft shops, including pottery, woodcarving, candle making, quilting, weaving, broom making, and painting, among many other fine art forms.

Gatlinburg is also home to the world-renowned Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Founded in 1945, Arrowmont offers summer and spring workshops and an array of special conferences for all levels of students in craft-art media. The art galleries at Arrowmont are open for tours of select collections throughout the year.

weather links

--Great Smoky Mountains weather forecast

--Road conditions in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

--DUI checkpoints this month in the Smokies

--Park Service and Forestry working on low-intensity wildfire

Register for Smoky Mountain Post email updates

Clingmans Dome Road to be closed one week

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS - Clingmans Dome Road will be closed for construction from Monday, Sept. 13, until Saturday morning, Sept. 18.

According to managers at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, contractors will do final paving and striping on the large parking lot that serves visitors to the observation tower, and will re-grade the gravel shoulders to improve drainage and safety during the closure.

The work is a continuation of the reconstruction and repaving that began in February.

Smoky Mountain Post

Online News & Travel Guide of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and surrounding cities.

Re-opening of Elkmont hiking trails delayed

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS - Great Smoky Mountains National Park has announced a delay in the reopening of the Little River/Jakes Creek Trail access road in the Elkmont area due to continuing construction activities.

The revised date for the reopening is now scheduled on Oct. 15. The work consists of repaving all of the connecting roads to the popular trails in Elkmont and creating formalized parking areas for the trailheads, as well as a new day use parking area at the Appalachian Clubhouse.

Managers were expecting to complete the work by Labor Day, but progress was held up by the addition of underground utility work which delayed award of a contract.

Limited access is still being provided to hikers to reach the Little River Trail, but there is no safe access through the construction site to the Jakes Creek Trail.  An extremely limited number of temporary parking spaces have been designated at the Elkmont Campground, so hikers planning to use Little River Trail need to check in for instructions at the campground kiosk.

Construction Resumes on Cherokee Orchard Road and Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS - Park managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park have announced
that reconstruction activity has resumed on the Cherokee Orchard Road and the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail just outside Gatlinburg.

The reopening date for Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is now projected to be Friday, October 1. From Monday, August 23 through Friday, September 3 all traffic up the two-lane Cherokee Orchard Road will be required to turn around at Noah Bud Ogle Cabin, which will prevent access to the Rainbow Falls and Bullhead Trails. During the closure Park managers are directing hikers bound for Mt. LeConte to either Alum Cave Trail or the Boulevard Trail.

Normal traffic on Cherokee Orchard Road will resume over the Labor Day Weekend from Saturday, September 4 through Monday, September 6. From Tuesday, September 7 through Friday, September 10 Cherokee Orchard Road will be closed to public use into the Park.

Park officials emphasized that since part of the work includes repaving of the two parking areas at the Rainbow Falls Trailhead, all vehicles must be removed from those parking lots by dark on Sunday, August 22.  Additionally, all vehicles parked in the lots over the Labor Weekend must be removed by dark on Monday September 6.

Smoky Mountain Post

- photo of the week - 

Bull Elk in Cataloochee Valley, NC

An elk strides through the Cataloochee Valley with three wild turkeys in the background. This photo was taken by Candace West of Amarillo, Texas (formerly of Andersonville, TN). Read more about future plans for managing elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park here.

If you would like to submit a photo for possible inclusion, please email your photo to info@smokymountainpost.com.

8th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition Focus: Trees

BOONE, NC - The 8th Annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) will open for registration and submissions on Friday, Sept. 17, 2010.

Amateur and professional photographers 13 years of age and older are encouraged to submit at www.appmtnphotocomp.org prior to the competition’s close at 5:00 pm on Friday, December 17, 2010.

A partnership between Appalachian State University Outdoor Programs, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, the AMPC celebrates the unique people, places, and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians and attracts entries from across the United States. Competition Organizers are excited to announce this year’s Blue Ridge Parkway Share the Journey ® Category theme: The Parkway Tree Project.

The areas comprising the Blue Ridge Parkway boast nearly 100 tree species that contribute to ecological zones of unsurpassed diversity.  The Parkway Tree Project seeks to bring greater public awareness to the rich natural resources of the region and to document significant trees that contribute to the character, environment, and/or aesthetic of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Photographers are encouraged to capture images of trees along the Blue Ridge Parkway that stand out as the most beautiful, the oldest or largest, trees that tell a story or have a place in history, and those that are unique for their shape, species, or character. Those submitting images to the Parkway Tree Project will be asked to identify the tree species, document the tree’s location (e.g. GPS coordinates, Parkway Milepost, or other identifying indicators of the tree’s location), and describe in a short story of a paragraph or more why the photographed tree is of particular significance.

Entries will be judged on impact, subject matter, center of interest, and storytelling – effectively sharing the journey by celebrating trees along the Parkway. The Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition offers seven separate categories for submissions and $4,000 in cash and prizes.

Competition categories include: Adventure; Blue Ridge Parkway Vistas and Share the Journey ®; Culture; Our Ecological Footprint; Flora and Fauna; and Landscape.  A panel of professional photographers is tasked with reviewing all entries and narrowing them down to approximately forty-six that will hang in exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, February 4 through June 4, 2011.

Enter Your Favorite National Park or Federal Recreation Land Photo for a Chance to Win

The National Park Foundation and Olympus are sponsoring a Share the Experience Photo Contest.

Federal Recreation Lands and National Parks are special places that bring people together and leave visitors enriched. In celebration of these lands, the contest invites you to submit a photo of your favorite National Park or Federal Recreation Land.

Participants could win a 4-night stay at their favorite park, a $1,799 Olympus camera package to shoot next year's winning photo, a $50 Gander Mountain gift card, Merrell shoes, and an Interagency Pass.

Submissions will be accepted through Dec. 31, 2010. Click here to enter.

You can cast your votes from Jan. 16 to Jan. 31, 2011 for a chance to win $400.