Park Trail GuideTrip planning

Reviewed guide · Southeast

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Unit code GRSM. Figures retrieved 2026-11-06. Official alerts, fees, and closures are not copied here.

Show on the atlas
Trees, rhododendron, and other shrubs line a wide, gravelly trail partially covered in leaves.
Public-domain National Park Service photograph. Credit: NPS Photo. Asset record.
States on the system list
North Carolina, Tennessee
Guide region
Southeast. Editorial grouping of the state that contains the centroid, or the first listed state when the point is offshore.
Anniversary-table date
May 22, 1926
Gross area acres
522,426.88

NPS fee acres: 521,984.15. Report date September 30, 2026. Gross area is not the same column as fee ownership.

Boundary centroid
35.6222, -83.4981

Containing shoreline polygon: Tennessee. Not an entrance.

Recreation-visit record
Highest monthly mean is in June, July, or August

Highest mean: July. Lowest mean: January. Mean annual total across complete years: 12,283,294 (10 complete years).

A separate preserve row exists in the same acreage report (GREAT SAND DUNES N PRES). It is not added to the national park figures on this page.

The monthly record

January: 409,750 mean recreation visitsFebruary: 448,687 mean recreation visitsMarch: 783,972 mean recreation visitsApril: 879,481 mean recreation visitsMay: 1,103,722 mean recreation visitsJune: 1,436,234 mean recreation visitsJuly: 1,548,717 mean recreation visitsAugust: 1,267,185 mean recreation visitsSeptember: 1,246,694 mean recreation visitsOctober: 1,525,010 mean recreation visitsNovember: 939,798 mean recreation visitsDecember: 694,044 mean recreation visitsJFMAMJJASOND
Mean of reported recreation visits by calendar month, 2016–2025. Gold is the lowest mean and rust is the highest. A missing bar was not reported. This is a historic average, not a live crowd count.
Monthly recreation-visit record
MonthMeanLowest yearHighest yearYears in the mean
January409,750276,999525,80110
February448,687353,532536,59210
March783,972487,535931,06010
April879,48199,3711,169,46910
May1,103,722828,7921,363,18310
June1,436,2341,304,7111,545,90610
July1,548,7171,385,8541,730,98710
August1,267,185998,0561,544,25410
September1,246,694981,3661,400,17110
October1,525,0101,263,6651,739,72010
November939,798810,8941,155,22710
December694,044468,721856,80810

How to use this guide

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is listed in both North Carolina and Tennessee. The boundary centroid falls in one of those states. That does not make the other state optional, and it does not mark an entrance. Use the state filter on the atlas if you are collecting parks by either state; the park will match both.

This park’s recreation-visit record is among the largest in the set. A large historic average is not a reservation status, a parking guarantee, or a reason to skip the conditions page. The anniversary table’s date and note, and the two acreage columns, are printed beside the chart so the busy reputation stays attached to a definition.

Official pages

These links were checked when the site was built. A working link is not a live feed. If a standard address did not respond, it is omitted.

Nearest other national parks

Distances are great-circle miles between boundary centroids. They are not road distances or travel times.