Fires and campsites

 Some park trails remain closed due to Thomas Divide Complex Fire 

 Great Smoky Mountains National Park firefighters and multiple agencies are working together to extinguish the Thomas Divide Complex Fire east of Bryson City, North Carolina. The complex is comprised of two wildfires including the Stone Pile Fire which is estimated to be approximately 140 acres and the Cooper Creek Fire which is estimated to be approximately 170 acres. The fire is estimated to be 10 percent contained with about half of the fire burning within the park boundary. 

Several park trails and backcountry campsites remain closed between Deep Creek and Newfound Gap Road.  

The following areas remain closed: Backcountry campsites 46, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, and 60; Deep Creek and Thomas Divide trails from Deep Creek to Newfound Gap Road; Pole Road Creek, Indian Creek, Stone Pile Gap, Deep Creek Horse Bypass, Juney Whank Falls, Deeplow, Fork Ridge, Sunkota Ridge, Martins Gap, Indian Creek Motor Nature, Mingus Creek, Newton Bald, Kanati Fork, and Loop trails. Toms Branch Road near Deep Creek is also closed. The Deep Creek Campground and Picnic Area are not scheduled to open for the season until April 15. 

 For current park information see one of the following sites below or give the folks at Sugarlands Visitor Center  a call.

--NPS-- 

www.nps.gov/grsm 

www.Facebook.com/GreatSmokyMountainsNPS 

www.Twitter.com/GreatSmokyNPS 

This Just in.... 

Park to reopen Parson Branch Road  

 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced that efforts are underway to reopen Parson Branch Road in 2022. The eight-mile, primitive gravel road between Cades Cove and the western boundary of the park along Highway 129 has been closed since 2016 due to hazardous tree concerns. The Friends of the Smokies provided critical funding to support the removal of the trees. The road is targeted for reopening this summer.   

 

Park crews originally delayed opening the road in the summer of 2016 due to a damaged, 20-linear-foot section of road caused by an uprooted dead tree. After further inspection, crews identified over 1,700 hazardous trees within falling distance of the road corridor. The road was closed to all vehicle use by the public. The narrow, low speed roadway closely winds along the creek through mature forests containing a high concentration of Eastern hemlock trees which were dead or dying due to a widespread infestation of the non-native forest pest, hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). 

 

Park crews have continued to work diligently during the five-year closure to remove downed trees blocking the road and to make needed road repairs to ensure that the corridor was passable for emergency vehicles. Over this time period, more than half the dead trees have fallen due to natural deterioration and multiple large storm events. The Park also needed to the remove an additional 800 standing hazard trees along the road corridor.   

 

Once the tree removal work is complete, Park crews will begin working on road clean-up, ditching, and grading of the road surface to ready it for opening. More updates will be provided about the anticipated opening date by early summer.  For more information about road closures, please follow SmokiesRoadsNPS on Twitter or visit the park website at www.nps.gov/grsm.