It's not just cars that are clogging the loop road to Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Bicyclists and pedestrians flood the 11-mile, one-way route during vehicle-free periods, currently Wednesday and Saturday mornings until 10 a.m. from May through September. Due to growing use and congestion, the park is proposing to implement a pilot study for 2020 to evaluate changing this vehicle-free period to a weekly, full-day closure on Wednesdays from May through September.

Another year of estimated visitation numbers has been released by the National Park Service. As unreliable, unhelpful, and unsustainable as the numbers are, the head counts should be tossed aside.

Are you postponing this year's national park escape because of the coronavirus outbreak?

National Park Service officials are working to approve a plan to see the Fourth of July fireworks display return to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.