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View Full Version : new road through GSMNP?



MedicineMan
03-03-2003, 04:34
are they really going to do this or is it just hype?

tlbj6142
03-03-2003, 10:24
Got a link?

That would suck. The roads they have in place now are fine. Just start charging $20 a car load like the rest of the national parks, and watch the traffic decline.

chris
03-03-2003, 10:29
I haven't heard anything for a couple of months. But, the road would be free. Part of the agreement by which the feds got the land in the first place. At least, I would assume the road would be free because of the agreement.

tlbj6142
03-03-2003, 10:39
I wonder why they want to build another road? The park is already surrounded by roads, and there are a few that cut deeply into the park in various corners. IMO, the park is fairly small. Another road would just make it smaller.

I have a feeling this is being done to give lazy folks more access to backcountry settings. Which, of course, sort of doesn't make them so backcountry anymore.

This would also move some fo the "crowd" off of the 4-5 hotspots they currently use. So, we'd end up with 8-10 hotspots.

tlbj6142
03-03-2003, 10:49
Is this (http://www.nps.gov/grsm/pphtml/newseventsdetail6599.html) what you are talking about?

This link (www.NorthShoreRoad.info) is a site dedicated just to this road.

After looking at the map on this (http://www.northshoreroad.info/locationmap.pdf) page, I really don't see why they need this road. True this probably some of the most remote sections of the park, but why exactly do we need a road in that section? Better fishing access?

tlbj6142
03-03-2003, 11:02
I think I figured it out.

As you might have guess it, this road is about money! :banana

Sure there is some sort of "historical" reason for building the road, but now with route 74/28/129 running through this reigon "access" is no longer the reason for this road.

My bet is that Fontana Village, Bryson City and the surrounding towns/land owners are pushing for it as it will give them their own private entrance into the park. Sure they are near, or next to, the park now, but with new access into prime fishing/boating sections of the park these two towns can really start to benefit from increased tourism.

Does the world really need another Cherokee, NC? Gatlinburg, TN?

smokymtnsteve
03-03-2003, 17:43
It's called the "Road to Nowhere" Part of it Already exist...the roads leaves bryson city and leads into the park best way to get into the hazel creek drainage from a low eleavation(unless you get a water shuttle from fontana) and into highrocks..right now the road leads to a parking lot and then you hike thru a tunnel just like the ones on 441 , there is a tunnel bypass trail...used mostly by horse back rider..so take the tunnel...the road ends at the begining of the tunnel ..

any way back to this road...on the other side of the park the tremont road goes a goood way up the side of the side of the mtn but it is a dirt road single lane with cutouts where the 'road to nowhere is a 2 lane paved road.

back whenthe park was being formed and the fontana Dam was being built there were towns and villages at the 'bottom ' of the lake including a state road...as this part of the park lies in swain county Nc part of the 'deal with swain county was to 'replace the road that was deystroyed withthe flooding of fontana...to make a 'gateway into the park" hook up with tukellechee..build another gatlinburg whre bryson city is now...you know this type of activities put Tax Dollars inthe county treasury so there is a group of people who REALLY WANT" the road ...hikes Lead by Harvey broome in the 60's also fought this issue but the time seems 'RIPE ' with the present federal guvmint
for the folks who really want the road to flex thier muscle...

a good book to read about the backgorund of this issue ..along with just being "the" study done on the GREAT
Smoky MTNS...a book so good that the NPS banned it"s sale in
the park bookstores for a while in the 60's


"Strangers in High Places" by Michael Froome

Maybe some one more computer savvy than me can get us a link.

smokymtnsteve
03-03-2003, 17:53
....