The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was dealt another blow by National Geographic Traveler magazine this month.

The Park was ranked in the “Rock Bottom” category by 300 panelists conducting a national park scorecard for the magazine. The Smokies came in next to the bottom — 54 of 55 parks.

“Terrible traffic, vista-choking haze, invasive species, and crowded trails are among the problems facing the beloved Great Smokies, a treasure house of biodiversity,” stated the article in the July issue of National Geographic Traveler.

Panelists used the adjectives “horrible,” “appalling,” and “distasteful” to describe the gateway towns of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Cherokee, citing an abundance of “theme parks, outlets, and billboards.”

Last year, panelists for an ecotourism destination scorecard sanctioned by National Geographic Traveler put the Smokies in the “Getting Ugly” category. Many of the same complaints were cited by panelists in both studies. Panelists in the ecotourism destination scorecard published last year called the park’s gateway towns “shameful” and even a “bathtub ring of ugly, insensitive development.”

“Gateway communities like Gatlinburg are a lesson in what not to do in a national park,” one panelist said.

It appears at least one panelist recognized that there are still some pleasant and pristine entrances on the North Carolina side of the park, like Cataloochee or Deep Creek or Big Creek, saying the park can be absolutely wonderful or absolutely tragic depending on where you enter.

In the ecotourism destination scorecard last year, the Smokies got a score of 48. In the national park scorecard published this year, the Smokies got a score of 40 out of 100. The same scoring method was used by panelists in both studies.

The key to gateway towns

Parks in the most recent scorecard were chosen because of their close quarters and unshakable attachment to neighboring gateway towns.

“If you visit a national park, you’ll often spend plenty of time just outside the park, too — eating, sleeping, parking, shopping, sightseeing — in the town or region that geographers call the gateway. A park and its gateway are really a single destination, with similar history, scenery, and climate,” the article states. “The way the park and gateways interact can make all the difference in the quality of your trip and in the sustainability of the destination.”

Consequently, it was the gateway communities that earned the Smokies low scores.

“Great park, wonderful hiking, superb historic buildings and landscapes, but this is all degraded by the distasteful tourist schlock presented by Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Cherokee, and other gateway towns,” one panelist wrote. Panelists’ names were kept anonymous.

Another said the “gateways into the (Smokies) are glorified amusement parks.”

One astute panelist attributed lack of cooperation from neighboring communities to lingering resentment over the creation of the park.

“Kicking people off 6,600 tracts of land to create the park has led to huge cultural problems,” the panelist said.

The Smokies isn’t the only park chastised for its gateway communities, however.

Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah was described as having “junky, overstressed, and unappealing” gateway towns. The gateway towns outside Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota were chastised as “not conducive for a contemplative visit” to the big skies and prairie.

While gateway communities could break a park, they could make one, too.

“Bayfield is a most delightful gateway community, providing authentic Great Lakes atmosphere,” one panelist said about Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, which came in at the top of the pack.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia, also a top ranker, was lauded for an Audubon-certified golf course and authentic villages next to the park.

Canadian parks fared better than American parks on average when it comes to stewardship by gateway communities. The top ranking Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland is “a model of the collaborative actions of local communities and park management,” one panelist said.

The national park scorecard revealed that the Smokies is not alone in many of the challenges it faces. For example, a comment by one panelist about Acadia National Park sounds familiar to the Southern Appalachians — outsiders moving to the area for its beauty are eroding local culture.

“The increase in PFAs (People From Away) is eroding social integrity,” one panelist said, adding that lobstermen can’t afford to live on the coast anymore.

Problems at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan also sound familiar.

“There appears to be no end to the demand for second homes, retirement communities, and vacation estates,” one panelist said.

Resource management was also touched on by panelists. Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona faces a problem from the theft of petrified wood, a twist on the problematic poaching of ginseng and bears known by the Smokies.

But the biggest threat to national parks was simply visitors, according to many panelists, witnessed by this comment on Yosemite: “Still breathtaking, but visitor crowds produce an urban feeling.” One panelist said Mount Rushmore National Memorial “is like a shopping mall” due to crowds.

It appears no park is perfect in the panelists’ eyes. While a top scorer, even Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska received some bum comments. Panelists lamented monstrous cruise ships and the fact that native Tlingit habitation of the park is not being shared with visitors.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore in the North Carolina’s Outer Banks came in fourth from the bottom, scoring a 50 out of 100 and barely edging out the Smokies. One panelist called Hatteras “obscenely over-developed.”

Just ahead of the Smokies was Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

“Shenandoah needs a buffer zone to protect its famous vistas from more residential sprawl,” panelists concurred.

The Everglades, which came in at 34, is the only park ranked below the Smokies. The Everglades are being bled dry by irrigation of sugar plantations and urban water demands upstream. Panelists also cited a promulgation of motorboats and swamp buggies, in addition to the typical gateway town remarks.

“Rapid development on all sides has created an unpleasant, unattractive gateway to one of the planet’s unique places,” one panelist said about the Everglades.