Experience the “Other Side” of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We think of our national parks as wild, peaceful places, where you can “get away” from the hustle of civilization.

But if you've ever experienced a traffic jam as you try to drive to your favorite trail head or campsite, you know the “idea” of the parks doesn’t always mesh with reality.

What really happens in the day-to-day upkeep of a national park?

Retired couple Andy and Dinata Misovec are part of the backbone of National Parks—the volunteer corp.

The Misovecs help practically every year at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. As campground hosts, what they find is sometimes shocking, oftentimes hilarious, yet they always manage to come away still feeling the wonder of nature that any American National Park will instill in any visitor who cares to look.

Part journal, part thoughtful essays, Big Creek: a Closer Look at a National Park will show you why those traffic jams sometimes happen. But through broken bones, bee stings, snakes, and loose dogs, you will come away with a greater appreciation of what the National Parks mean to us as a nation.