Rock Slide Closes Little River Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park For the Weekend

A rock slide Friday morning forced the closure of a section of the Little River Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The bottom photo shows the hillside with loose, crumbly rock that will have to be pulled down and removed before the road can be opened. NPS photos.

Heading to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the weekend? Then know that a section of the Little River Road near the Elkmont Campground has been closed by a rock slide.

When the slide first came down Friday morning, crews thought they could clear it in a handful of hours. But then a second slide came down. The result is that the Little River Road between the Elkmont Campground and the Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area will be closed through Monday.

“When the slide first occurred we had hoped our own road crew could make the road safe in a few hours, but a second slide soon occurred which left a large patch of unstable rock still clinging to the slope above the road," said Alan Sumeriski, the park's chief of facility management. "We estimate that there are about 30 truckloads of this loose material that must be pulled down and hauled off to halt the slide.”

Motorists wishing to travel between the park’s Gatlinburg Entrance and Cades Cove or Townsend must detour to Pigeon Forge via U.S. 441 North and then U.S. 321 South into Townsend and back into the Park on Tennessee 73 to reach the Park’s Laurel Creek Road to Cades Cove.

“Visitors can still reach Elkmont Campground by way of the Gatlinburg Entrance,” Chief Sumeriski said. “Metcalf Bottoms and the 8 miles of Little River Road from the Picnic Area to the Townsend junction are still accessible from U.S. 321 in Wears Valley via Line Springs Road or from the Townsend end. Due to bridge load restrictions, no vehicles larger than passenger vans are allowed to enter the park via Line Springs Road. Travel on the Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) between Cherokee, North Carolina, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is not affected."

For the latest road information, you can call 865-436-1200.