America’s busiest national park — Great Smoky Mountains — closes due to coronavirus

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park — America’s “most visited national park” — announced with three hours notice that it is closing Tuesday, after being overwhelmed by tens of thousands of Americans seeking respite from the coronavirus outbreak.

The abrupt closure, starting at noon ET Tuesday, is until April 6, the park said in an email posted shortly after 9 a.m. However, it could stay closed longer, officials warned in the release.

“All access to the park, including trails and roads, will temporarily close,” park officials said in the email.

“Despite park efforts over the last week to comply with the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidance for social distancing, approximately 30,000 people entered the park daily resulting in congested conditions at popular locations.”

Two popular scenic roads will remain open: The Foothills Parkway and the Spur, the release said.

The Great Smoky Mountains tops the list of the nation’s “most visited national parks,” with 12.5 million tourists in 2019, according to the National Park Service. It’s one of three national parks that had more than 10 million visitors last year, the park service says.

The final weeks of April and early May coincide with spring break, a period when the park often sees an uptick of visitors searching for “wildflowers, and warm weather,” the park said.

Among the sites overwhelmed with crowds in recent days were Laurel Falls, Newfound Gap and Cades Cove, the release said.

The closure “allows the park to support local efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” a potentially fatal virus spread by close contact with infected people and from the surfaces they touched.

The Centers for Disease Control and various state and federal officials have issued increasingly strict guidelines for crowd control, with the CDC asking that people avoid groups of more than 10 people.

“The park will continue to assess changing conditions in our region and work with local communities to extend or terminate closures, as appropriate to ensure the health and safety of our visitors, employees, volunteers, partners, and local residents,” the release said.

The park previously closed all of its visitors centers due to the virus and announced Sunday that it was closing its campgrounds and picnic areas.

This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 11:14 AM with the headline "America’s busiest national park — Great Smoky Mountains — closes due to coronavirus."