Dollywood Flowers And Food Festival

Dollywood Flowers And Food Festival. Dollywood has added a new festival to the mix during this season. The Flower and Food Festival kicked off when Dollywood opened on June 1, 2020. Visitors will enjoy over half a million new flowers and plants throughout the park. Many displays are Smoky Mountain turtles, frogs, black bears, and a tribute to “Coat of Many Colors” with a butterfly and scenic sculpture of Dolly’s mother sewing the coat. The tallest sculpture is Dolly’s mother, which is 14-feet tall! The sculptures are called “mosaics.” Mosaiculture is the art of creating larger-than life plant sculptures using thousands of plants to cover a steel frame. There are more than 6,000 plants in Dolly’s mosaics. The mosaics aren’t the only “flower” elements in the park! There are also beautiful floral carpet beds around the walkways and plenty of flowerbeds.

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Cades Cove Car Ban

Cades Cove car ban implemented by Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

National Park officials announce the implementation of vehicle-free access on the Cades Cove Loop Road each Wednesday beginning June 17, 2020 through September 30, 2020. This move is being called a “pilot study” to improve the visitor experience. For many years vehicle free hours have been each Wednesday and Saturday mornings until 10 a.m. during May through September. The park proposed the study due to congested parking areas and disruption of visitor services associated with the vehicle-free periods.

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Smoky Mountain Travel Advisory

Smoky Mountain travel advisory. Upcoming Single-Lane Closures on the Spur. Great Smoky Mountains National Park maintenance crews will have single-lane closures along the north and southbound Spur between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, beginning June 1, 2020 through Thursday, June 11, 2020 for maintenance operations. The single-lane closures will be in effect from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, each week.  

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