Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Potomac Valley Audubon Society is now accepting registrations for a special fall weekend camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Participants will travel to the Park on Friday, October 30, spend two full days there, and travel home on Monday, Nov. 2.

Anyone is welcome to sign up.

Activities will include hiking and wildlife watching (including elk watching). Possible additional activities include fishing, horseback trail riding, bicycling, and a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont.

PVAS will provide transportation in vans and make all campsite arrangements. A fee will be charged to cover these costs; the amount of the fee will depend on the number of people who sign up for the trip and fuel costs at the time. If six people sign up, at today’s fuel costs the fee will be about $195 per person. If nine people sign up, it will be about $140 per person. If 16 sign up, it will be about $120 per person.

Trip participants must supply their own bedding, equipment, food, as well as a tent if they have one. PVAS will provide tent space for those who do not have a tent of their own.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, encompasses 814 square miles in North Carolina and Tennessee. It is one of the largest protected areas in the eastern U.S. and the most visited park in the entire National Park System..

The Park is world-renowned for the diversity of its plant and animal resources, the beauty of its ancient mountains, the quality of its remnants of American pioneer culture, and the depth and integrity of the wilderness sanctuary within its boundaries. It offers panoramic views, tumbling mountain streams, water falls, historic farmsteads, and large stands of old-growth forests. The Park is mostly forested, and its fall foliage should be near its peak color during our trip. For more information, see the Park’s website at www.nps.gov/grsm.

The Park is about 450 miles from the Eastern Panhandle. Estimated travel time is about nine hours each way.

The trip will be led by PVAS Board member Clark Dixon. For more information and/or to sign up contact him at (304) 725-9634 or dixonconsultants@aol.com

The Potomac Valley Audubon Society is a member of the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle and the Combined Federal Campaign.