The Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be sending emails out today with the results of the parking lottery for its annual synchronous firefly event at Elkmont.
The park said people should keep a close eye on the email accounts on May 9, and should also check their spam and junk mail folders if they do not see an email from the park
The spectacular natural event is expected to happen on a day between June 7-14, 2018, depending on when the fireflies arrive and begin to hit their peak.
During the shuttle operating period, a parking pass is required for evening access to the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking area and the firefly shuttle to the Elkmont viewing area, according to the National Park Services.
People hoping to attend the annual spectacle submitted their name to the lottery for parking passes on the Recreation.gov Firefly Event page on the last week of April. Only 1,800 passes are roughly available, and each year far more people apply to receive one than are readily available.
According to NPS, during the lottery application, you must choose to apply for a regular vehicle parking pass or large vehicle parking pass.
New in 2018, lottery winners will be charged a $20 reservation fee to help cover the cost of awarding the passes, viewing supplies, and nightly personnel to manage the viewing opportunity at Sugarlands Visitor Center and Elkmont.
A $2 (cash only) round-trip, per-person fee will be collected when boarding the shuttle at Sugarlands Visitor Center.
Elkmont is one of the few places in the world where you can see the Photinus carolinus, the special kind of firefly that flashes in sync.
The event has become so popular over the years that the park has had to take steps to limit the number of people that could view the fireflies each night.
Questions about the lottery can be found here.