Great Smoky Mountains Park It Forward Program

Great Smoky Mountains Park It Forward Program
It is possible you've heard the news already, but if not, we'll be happy to introduce you to it here. Beginning March 1st, 2023, the Smoky Mountain National Park will require parking tags on vehicles for parking accessibility at National Park destinations. Daily passes are $5 and weekly and yearly passes are also available.

Let's get this out of the way: while the most immediate and obvious reasons for the Park's decision to sell parking access seem counter-intuitive, this program, called the "Park It Forward" program, is actually designed to improve driving safety and traffic issues that had been increasing for visitors and locals in recent years. The "Park It Forward" program will improve traffic conditions in the National Park by making planning ahead for parking conditions in the Park mandatory as well as produce a large new potential revenue source for maintenance and further improvements.

Certain conditions, special exemptions and "fee-free" days will apply to the Park It Forward program. See more information at https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/fees.htm.