Angie Matherne of Cut Off, Louisiana, comes to the Smoky Mountains for a change of scenery.

What You Need To Know

  • The Great Smoky Mountains National Park will start requiring parking passes starting March 1

  • Anyone parking longer than 15 minutes will need a parking pass

  • Day passes will be $5, weekly passes will be $15 and annual passes will be $40

“We love the mountains. Yeah, we love the weather, it’s beautiful here,” Matherne said. “We wanted to get away from Louisiana and check out the mountains and hopefully retire here one day.”

Matherne has been coming up here for 25 years. She tries to visit at least once a year with her family and just learned about the new Park it Forward program at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Parking passes will be required starting March 1.

It will cost $40 for annual passes. Day passes will be $5 and weekly passes will be $15. So why the change?

“It’s going to help us provide things like more park staff. For example, more emergency responders, more law enforcement rangers, more folks on the ground talking about some of the educational opportunities we have in the park,” Emily Davis of the national park said.

Davis said the extra funding is needed. The park, which straddles the North Carolina-Tennesee border, has seen a 57% increase in visitors over the past decade.

But Angie and some other families may be looking for a new vacation spot.

“No, I wouldn’t want parking passes here. We come here often and it’s always been free, so we’ll probably find another place to go,” Matherne said.

Parking tags will not guarantee a parking spot, and passes cannot be exchanged between cars.

You can purchase daily and weekly passes starting on Feb. 21 on Recreation.gov. Annual passes are available to pre-order through the Great Smoky Mountains Association.