Great Smoky Mountain National Park camping fees to increase

 
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK — Camping in the country’s favorite national park will cost more this spring, but the Smokies can still be considered a bargain when it comes to mountain-view and stream-side camping in the mountains.

The fees, which are increasing between 10 percent to 25 percent, will go into effect March 1 at front-country campgrounds and picnic pavilions – those that can be accessed by car.

The park proposed the new front-country fees last spring and took public comment through July 12. Park spokeswoman Jamie Sanders said more than half of the 44 comments received supported the increase.

“During the past 10 years, inflation and rising salary costs have affected the cost of providing services and managing facilities, including personnel and supplies and material costs,” Sanders said.

“Recreation fee money provides critical revenue for the park to maintain infrastructure and services. Unlike most large national parks, the Smokies does not charge an entrance fee and therefore has limited means for maintaining levels of service the public has come to expect.”

The rate increases are needed to meet the rising costs of operations and maintenance backlog at the park’s nine open campgrounds, seven group campgrounds, six picnic pavilions, and five horse campgrounds.

The park retains 100 percent of the camping and pavilion fees to operate these facilities, including maintaining buildings, grounds, and utilities, providing visitor services, and funding rehabilitation projects, such as road resurfacing and replacing picnic tables and grills.

The camping fees had not been increased since 2006 or earlier, Sanders said, except at Cataloochee Campground, which had an increase in camping fees in 2011 when it was added to the reservation system.

Sean Perry, an Asheville contractor who grew up in Tennessee hiking, camping and backpacking in the Smokies, still camps there with his family.

"Until we shift our collective values to more strongly value our treasured lands, increases like these are necessary to maintain our nation's most visited national park," said Perry, who last year donated a week of his company's time, expertise and labor to refurbish the Cook Cabin, built in 1850 in the Cataloochee area.

The project was aided by funding from the Friends of the Smokies nonprofit, and is an example of work that cannot be performed within the park's current budget.

The new camping fees range between $17.50-$27 per day for the park’s tent and RV sites. Rates at some campgrounds on the North Carolina side include $17.50 per day at Balsam Mountains, $25 at Cataloochee, $21 at Deep Creek and $21-$25 at Smokemont.

Retaining its “wilderness” like appeal, there are no campgrounds with water or electrical hookups (except for a few reserved for those with medical needs) in the rugged, mountainous park built during the 1930s.

However, each campsite has the luxuries of cold running water, flush toilets and picnic tables. The prices are still lower than nearby private campgrounds, which range from $27 for primitive sites to $55 a day for sites with hookups during the summer.

In addition to fee increases, the park is also adding Abrams Creek, Balsam Mountain and Big Creek campgrounds to the National Recreation Reservation System to reduce operation costs and eliminate the need for staff time for the collection of fees.

Beginning in early March, all sites will require advanced reservation and payment before arrival in the park through www.Recreation.gov either online or by phone.

The increase does not affect backcountry campsites, Sanders said. Fees for backcountry campsites of $4 per person per night went into effect in February 2013.

The Smokies, which encompass a half-million acres on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, was the most visited national park in the country last year, attracting 11.3 million people in 2017 who come for the high-elevation hiking, scenic views, waterfalls, trout fishing and the chance to spot wildlife such as black bear and elk. The park has some 300,000 camper nights a year.

But the park, along with some 400 units in the National Park Service, including the Blue Ridge Parkway in Western North Carolina, struggles with costs due to a stagnant budget, and has about $232 million deferred maintenance.

The park completed a 2016 comparability study with campgrounds in the surrounding communities showing that while park camping fees in the park have remained mostly constant since 2006, campgrounds in the surrounding communities have continued to rise. Even with the fee increase, park campgrounds will remain among the least expensive in the area.  

For more information on Smokies campgrounds, visit www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/carcamping.htm.

Originally found at http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/01/19/great-smoky-mountain-national-park-camping-fees-increase/1047452001/