October is the busiest month in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
This is an important update for anyone coming to the Smokies to fly fish in the near term. There is a shutdown of the federal government. National parks are a division of the federal government and their employees have been told not to come to work as their funding has expired.
We’ve weathered every one of these shutdowns since the Clinton administration. Each and every one of them has been handled differently. This is extremely hard on us as well as visitors who have had plans in place for weeks if not months that must be changed. In fact, this time we were notified in advance that we would receive guidance about our commercial operations in the park when park officials were notified what they would be. We awoke to a shutdown in place with zero guidance, and even now things seem to be unclear….
Right now we are authorized to carry on guiding in the park more or less as we do on a daily basis. We have been notified that the park will remain open to visitors, but in a very limited sense. Expect all visitor centers and bathrooms to be closed. The bulk of park employees, from custodial staff to law enforcement and rescue personnel will not be on the job.
This is where things get confusing…. Some picnic areas have been closed while others remain open, but seemingly without restrooms. We have been asked to please take any trash with us as there will not be any trash pickup from the receptacles in the park. This will undoubtedly get messy in the days ahead.
In the past we along with all other commercial use permit holders have had to cease operations in the park. This time we’ve been notified that we can continue to guide in the park with restrictions. We must notify everyone we guide that there will be no emergency services. While we have never needed emergency services, we see them in action weekly in the park, sometimes multiple times per day. Also, when any trees fall across the roads they will not be cleared. Things are in good shape now, but during the last shutdown in 2019 more and more of the park became inaccessible because of road blockages from fallen trees.
We know what a few of you may be thinking, but carrying a chainsaw in the trunk is of little use when there’s a giant oak across the road. Park personnel regularly use XXL chainsaws, bulldozers and dump trucks to clear many of the trees that fall across a road every so often in these thick forests.
Campgrounds seem to be open right now, but that doesn’t square with the guidance we’ve received. If you have reservations for a national park campground we would advise checking on that before heading this way. The most notable closure that visitors should be aware of is Cades Cove Loop Road. This is the busiest section of the park with the most accidents, wildlife interactions, and trash receptacles. Officials seem to have chosen to close this section of the park since there are innumerable problems that can pop up without anyone on duty to handle them.
