Smokies’ 75th anniversary celebration under way with hikes, events

GATLINBURG, Tenn. — The 75th anniversary celebration of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is under way.

The park, with 8 to 10 million annual visitors, is the country’s most popular national park.

Enlarge this image

AP Photo/Knoxville News-Sentinel, Paul Efird

Hikers explore Alum Cave Bluff in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, Tenn. The park is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with a series of events.

Tennessee travel stories

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

• Photos: Travel / Southeast Galleries
• Latest deals!
• Back to: Travel | Southeast destinations

Events and activities are scheduled throughout the year to mark the anniversary. They include:

• Seventy Five Miles of Hikes, a series of hikes sponsored by the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, to highlight trails used by its members before the park was officially established in 1934. Hikes include a 7.2-mile hike scheduled for April 5 on Porters Creek Trail; an April 18 hike to White Oak Sink that’s 6 miles, and a June 21 hike to Gregory Bald via Gregory Ridge that will run 12 miles.

• Music of the Mountains, March 28, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Sugarlands Visitor Center, a free festival of musical traditions of the southern Appalachian Mountains including claw hammer banjo and fiddle styles.

• Spring wildflower pilgrimages, April 22-26. Programs with daily hikes, arts and crafts, educational presentations and entertainment.

• National Junior Ranger Day, April 25, with kids’ activities 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the park’s three visitors centers.

• Educational events on citizen science, May 16-17, and biodiversity May 22.

• An event highlighting the history of Cades Cove, June 13, with an outdoor performance by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra (vehicle pass required). Cades Cove, a popular destination in the park, is home to log cabins and other preserved buildings where settlers in the valley lived and farmed in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Dolly Parton, a native of the mountains, helped launch the park’s 75th anniversary by performing in February at the annual Tennessee Sampler trade show in National Harbor, Md. She has been designated the official ambassador for the celebration. Parton is donating first-year proceeds from her new CD, “Sha-Kon-O-Hey!,” to the nonprofit Friends of the Smokies organization. The title of the album means “Land of Blue Smoke” in Cherokee.

For details and the complete schedule of park events, visit www.greatsmokies75th.org.