Great Smoky Mountains National Park guide · 1 min read
Parking Tags and Beating America's Busiest Crowds
Every vehicle parked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park for more than 15 minutes needs a parking tag.
Tags come in daily, weekly and annual versions, and they apply to vehicles of every size and type. Daily and weekly tags are sold in person once you reach the park, or you can order one online ahead of time and print it at home. Frequent visitors can order an annual tag online.
Getting into the park itself costs nothing, and the parking tag is not a charge for entry. The money from tags stays in the Smokies. It pays for more rangers, road and facility repairs, and wildlife protection.
Crowds are part of the picture here. The Smokies draw more people than any other national park in the country, about twice as many as the next busiest. The park counted more than 14.1 million recreational visitors in 2021. The Gatlinburg entrance in Tennessee sees the heaviest traffic. It sits at the end of the Great Smoky Mountains Parkway, the highway that links the park with Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Interstate 40.
To sidestep that gateway, consider starting from Cherokee, North Carolina, or from Townsend, the third main entrance. Newfound Gap Road, also known as United States Route 441, is the park's primary route over the mountains, running from Cherokee to Gatlinburg. You can drive it in a single day and pull off at overlooks for views across the ridges.
The season shapes your visit, too. In spring, wildflowers bloom across a park that also shelters old-growth forests. Whenever you come, sort out your parking tag before you stop for that first trail or overlook.
