GATLINBURG, Tenn. — March marks the second year the Great Smoky Mountain National Park launched its Park it Forward program. In its first year, the park has garnered over $10 million, which included parking tag sales and camping fees.
The park said they are using the money to improve visitor safety, increase park ranger presence and repair and maintain public park facilities.
The park is including a new ranger team, called the Preventative Search and Rescue team.
"So we have had some search and rescue and some preventive search and rescue here in the park, but not to this level before," Emily Davis, Public Affairs Specialist for the park said. "Think about parks out west like Grand Canyon National Park or Yosemite National Park. They have programs very similar to this. So it is getting us a little bit more in line with some of the other large national parks."
Davis said when they were rolling out the 'Park It Forward' program, they surveyed visitors on what they'd like to see. She said overwhelmingly, people would like to see more rangers.
"You know, with 13 million visitors in the amount of people who come here to hike it is, you know, a need," Davis said. "Our visitors need to be interacting with our rangers as often as possible to make sure again that they're prepared, have the information that they need and have a really good safe hike."
They are adding several rangers and increasing parking at a popular trailhead.
“Our team at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is grateful for the support of our partners, our neighbors and the millions of visitors who are helping us take care of one of the country’s most visited national parks,” Superintendent Cassius Cash said. “We’re already using this funding to increase our search and rescue program, add parking spaces at Laurel Falls trailhead and we are in the process of hiring more than 25 new park rangers."
According to the park, the parking program was created to provide support to protect and enhance the visitor experience at the Great Smokies. Park users directly contribute to protecting the park when they purchase a $5 daily, $15 weekly, or $40 annual parking tag.
The park also increased frontcountry and backcountry camping fees starting in March 2023. They said 100% of the funds generated by park fees stay in the Smokies.
“There’s so much more to come—our team continues to plan fee-funded projects for future years to address needed maintenance and to improve your experience in the park,” Cash said. “We look forward to continuing to demonstrate the value of this historic investment in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”
If you would like to buy the $40 annual parking tag, you can visit Smokies Life here. The $5 daily and $15 weekly parking tags are available at recreation.gov or by credit card at more than 30 kiosks in parking lots across the park.
All parking tag types are also at Smokies Life store locations. Annual tags are valid for one year from the date of purchase.