This Land, Your Land

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has started providing road-condition updates via text and Twitter for the park's four main routes.

You can get text messages about Newfound Gap (U.S. 441), Little River Road, Laurel Creek Road, and Cades Cove Loop Road sent to your cell phone by texting "follow smokiesroadsnps" to 40404. (Text "stop smokiesroadsnps" to the same number to cancel.)

The Twitter feed is at http://twitter.com/smokiesroadsnps.

The park’s recorded information line - (865) 436-1200, ext. 631 for roads, 630 for weather - receives more than 1,000 calls a day about road conditions during severe winter weather, the park's news release says. "When all of the incoming lines are in use, the calls rollover to the park’s Communications Center staff, often resulting in more than 600 calls to be answered, hampering the staff from responding to calls requesting park information and emergency assistance."

Road and facility closings are posted on the park's Web page at http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/temproadclose.htm.

In addition to notifications of winter road conditions, park officials plan to use the text and Twitter feeds to spread the word year-round about road openings and closings caused by rock slides, fallen trees or accidents. Any time the status of one of the listed roads changes, a message will be sent.