Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have announced that the Elkmont entrance road will be closed to motor vehicles and pedestrian use every night from at 5:00 p.m. until midnight, June 6-14, 2009, except to registered campers staying at the Elkmont Campground. The closure is to accommodate transportation service for visitors planning to spend the evening viewing the natural-occurring, synchronous firefly beetles at Elkmont.
The City of Gatlinburg, in partnership with the Park, will provide the trolleys for this activity. The trolley service, coinciding with the expected peak flashing period, will be the sole transportation mode for visitor access during this period; no private vehicles will be allowed to enter Elkmont. Restrictions will be in place to prohibit motor vehicles from parking along roadsides, pullouts, or any other areas besides at the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking area for the purposes of viewing fireflies at Elkmont. Only those visitors parking at the visitor center will be allowed to ride the trolleys.
Chief Park Ranger Bill Wright said that “There are safety concerns over the number of people parking in undesignated areas, along roadsides with narrow grassy shoulders that do not have adequate space for getting in and out of vehicles. Walking along the roadsides, along blind curves and, in some instances in traffic, are high risk factors, especially in the dark after coming back from Elkmont. This also means that visitors will not be allowed to park their vehicles along Little River Road and walk to Elkmont.”
The trolleys will begin picking up visitors from the Sugarlands Visitor Center RV/bus parking area at 6 p.m. The trolleys will run continually until the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking area is full or until 9 p.m., whichever comes first. The last trolley to return visitors from Elkmont to the Sugarlands Visitor Center is scheduled at 11 p.m. The cost will be $1 round trip per person as in previous years.
The annual appearance of the synchronous firefly beetles, which occurs during their mating behavior, has become so popular that Park officials began managing the number of visitors to the trailhead. The Elkmont area has very limited parking spaces that were designed to accommodate day use for several trails. The dates that the mating behavior begins can vary each year due to weather and other natural factors, but generally starts around the second week in June.
For those riding the trolleys, it is recommended that visitors bring flashlights with red cellophane covers to reduce white light. Visitors can bring lawn chairs, and carry food and water in backpacks which can fit on their laps in the trolleys; there are no services available at the site. Visitors are prohibited from bringing coolers, alcoholic beverages, or their pets.
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