National Park Week 2026

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK – National Park Week began today and runs through August 30. For most of the country the headline is a free entrance day on Tuesday, August 25. Great Smoky Mountains National Park has never charged admission, so that announcement usually means nothing to anyone headed here.

This year it means something. Your parking tag is waived too.

No Parking Tag August 25

A parking tag is required for any vehicle parked longer than 15 minutes anywhere inside the park. Daily tags cost $5, weekly tags $15, and annual tags $40.

The tag is not an entrance fee. That distinction is why an America the Beautiful pass, a Senior Pass, or a Military Pass will not cover it on an ordinary day.

However, the National Park Service states on its own fees page that the park honors the national free entrance days and that parking tags will not be required on those dates. August 25 is one of them.

Park where you like, stay as long as you like, and skip the kiosk. The next fee free date after that is Constitution Day on September 17.

Why the Week Moved

National Park Week has run in April for years. On March 20 the Department of the Interior announced the 2026 celebration would shift to August 22 through 30 so it would wrap around the 110th birthday of the National Park Service on August 25 and the 250th anniversary of American independence.

The theme is “Celebrate America’s Story.” The move came out of Executive Order 14189, Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, and it applies to all 433 units of the park system.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the parks preserve “the places where our nation’s story was written.”

Congress created the Park Service on August 25, 1916. This park has its own round number this year: President Calvin Coolidge signed the act authorizing Great Smoky Mountains National Park on May 22, 1926.

Art at the Visitor Centers

Amber Sparkle, the park’s August artist-in-residence, is at Sugarlands Visitor Center today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. She repeats the program at Oconaluftee Visitor Center on Saturday, August 29, same hours.

Sparkle is an acrylic painter and muralist from St. Petersburg, Florida. Both sessions are free and hands-on, and no reservation is required.

The artist-in-residence program is funded by Friends of the Smokies. Each of the six artists in this year’s lineup also gives a free lunchtime talk at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts auditorium in Gatlinburg.

Vehicle-Free Wednesday

August 26 lands on a Wednesday, and that is worth building a day around. The 11-mile Cades Cove Loop Road closes to motor vehicles from sunrise to sunset every Wednesday through September 30.

Walkers, runners and cyclists get the whole loop. Bike rentals are available near the Cades Cove Campground Store, and only Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes are allowed.

One catch worth repeating. The parking tag waiver covers Tuesday the 25th only. If you are driving over for vehicle-free Wednesday on the 26th, you need a tag like any other day, and the lots at the Townsend Wye and the cove entrance fill early.

The loop has hills and very little shade. There is no cell service out there, so carry water, food and a rain jacket and tell somebody where you went.

Junior Ranger Day

The week closes with National Junior Ranger Day on Sunday, August 30. In past years the Smokies has marked it with ranger-guided walks, historic toy making, blacksmith demonstrations, and touch tables loaded with animal skins, skulls and scat.

The park had not posted its specific August 30 schedule as of this writing. Details go up on the park’s online event calendar and at the visitor center desks, so check both a day or two out.

Expect Company

Free parking on a warm Tuesday in late August will pull a crowd, and the schools being back in session will only take the edge off it. Cades Cove, Laurel Falls, Alum Cave and the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail will all be full by mid-morning.

Get in before 9 a.m. or come after 4 p.m. Better yet, spend the 25th somewhere the crowd is not: Cataloochee, Big Creek, Deep Creek, or the Foothills Parkway pull-offs on the Townsend side.