Great Smoky Mountains Superintendent Dale A. Ditmanson has announced that when the Park’s Cataloochee Campground reopens for the season next March 11 campers will be required to have made advance reservations through Recreation.gov.
Historically, the popular, but remote, 27-site campground has operated on a first-come-first-served basis, which did not provide prospective campers any way of knowing whether they would be able to get a site until after they arrived at the Campground.
“Cataloochee Campground offers one of the Park’s most sought-after camping experiences, but getting there involves a 30 to 40 minute, 11-mile, drive off I-40, with much of that along a very-narrow and circuitous gravel road.” Ditmanson said.  “There is no cell or landline phone service and no regularly-assigned staff assigned at the campground, so there is no way for anybody to check to see if sites are available.”
The reservation system typically allows reservations to be made up to six months in advance, but the reservation database for Cataloochee in this first year is not expected to be active until February 1, 2011.
 On that date, reservations for sites from the March 11 campground opening date through August 1 will be reservable at once. Each day after February 1, 2011 a new date, six months ahead, will become available. Reservations will be made either online at: www.recreation.gov  or toll-free at 1-877-444-6777.  

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