We all know that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited park in the United States. In 2021, the Smokies had 14.1 million visitors. Maybe it was a pandemic response and wanting to be outside or just greater appreciation of the outdoors. The bottom line is that there was a 57 percent uptick in visitation in a decade. But the park doesn’t get more money because of increased visitation; that’s not how the National Park Service works.

In the meantime, inflation has obviously taken its toll, producing a cumulative price increase of 26.13 percent in 10 years. What you bought with $100 in 2011 would need $126.13 today.

The parks get funding four ways:

• Base funding – That’s the funding that comes from the Federal Government as part of the National Park Service budget. For the Smokies, it’s pitiful; it’s less than $20 million for the most visited park in the country. Right now, with 14.1 million visitors, the park is getting $1.41 per visitor. What can you do with $1.41?
• Concessions – Unlike western parks, the Smokies has very few concessions. These include the camping stores in Cades Cove and a couple of horse rentals. Not much, not like the Western parks with its large and expensive lodges which pay a fee for the right to operate in a national park. When the park was created, officially in 1934, they decided to leave the commercial stuff – restaurants and lodging – to communities outside the park. Gatlinburg was already a tourist town.
• Donations – The park has several park partners, as they call them. Great Smoky Mountains Association, Friends of the Smokies, the Tremont Institute and Discover Life in America. These nonprofits organizations raise money for the park, each in its own way. They generate about four million dollars a year. That’s great and appreciated, I’m sure. But the money was meant to provide a “Margin of Excellence.” When Secretary of the Interior under President Obama, Sally Jewell, visited the Smokies, she said that “Friends groups used to provide the margin of excellence. Now they’re providing the margin of survival for parks.”
  
• Fees – Right now, the only fees are for front- and backcountry camping or renting picnic areas, the Appalachian Clubhouse and Spence Cabin at Elkmont. Not much indeed.

So why doesn’t the park charge an entrance fee? All the other major parks do. For example, a seven-day pass in Yosemite National Park is $35.

There are many rumors that I probably should not repeat because they’re wrong. It has nothing to do with buying land from the settlers or promises made to former residents. Besides, when the Smokies became a park in 1934, over 80 percent of the land was owned by logging companies.

The correct answer is that when the park was formed, the state of Tennessee held onto Newfound Gap Rd. and Little River Rd. In 1951, the state of Tennessee transferred Newfound Gap Road (Hwy 441) and Little River Road (Hwy 71/73) to the park. That deed transfer contained a restriction preventing tolls on either road. Before the creation of the Interstate Highway System, these were the main roads between Tennessee and North Carolina, and the state likely included this restriction to ensure access to free interstate travel.

In 1994, a new federal law (U.S. Code, Title 16) prevented the NPS from charging entrance fees where tolls are prohibited on primary park roads. Because Newfound Gap Road and Little River Road are the primary roads in the park, the park is, to this day, unable to charge an entrance fee.

See https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/whyfree.htm for more discussion.

Parking Fee

The Smokies under Superintendent Cassius Cash is getting creative. Starting in 2023, the park wants to implement a parking tag, almost like on a college campus. If you want to just drive straight through the park, you wouldn't need a parking tag. And about 13 percent of visitors do just that and don’t stop.

However, if you want to stop, hike, picnic or enjoy the park, you would have to buy a pass if this proposal is approved. Probably the easiest place to buy it would be at a Smokies store like Oconaluftee or Sugarlands Visitor Center. Right now, park staff is proposing a fee of $5 for the day, $15 for seven days, or $40 annually; that is cheap.

And the park would be able to keep all the revenues to use for the Smokies under this proposal.

It’s been compared to a college campus. Hah! At the University of North Carolina, student parking fees are the following:

• $200 (August-August)
• $5 for daily permits
• $25 for weekly permits

Another comparison is with the North Carolina Arboretum, also in Asheville. Their parking fee is $16 for the day. A yearly membership is $50. The arboretum is only 434 acres and has 10 miles of trails. In contrast, the Smokies has over 800 miles of trail and over a hundred historic buildings it has to take care of.

So the proposed Smokies parking fee is a bargain.

What do you think?

The comment period for this change has already started. You have until May 7 to make your comments. Every comment is read. Take the time to do this, even if you agree with the parking tag – especially if you agree with it.

Visit https://parkplanning.nps.gov/GRSMfeeproposal2023

Select “Open for Comment” on the left menu bar, open the Proposed Smokies Fee Program Changes for 2023 folder, and click on the green “Comment Now” button to access the online commenting form.

In an ideal world, there would be no need for parking fees, entrance fees (in other parks) or even Friends groups. In an ideal world, our government would fund our parks properly. But the park needs the money because your taxes are not doing it.