By state · TN

National Parks in Tennessee.

By Nicholas Major · Last updated

Tennessee shares Great Smoky Mountains National Park with North Carolina: the most-visited National Park in the country every year by a wide margin. Other notable Tennessee NPS units include Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, Obed Wild & Scenic River, Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park (TN/GA), Fort Donelson, and Stones River. Knoxville (TYS) is the closest major airport to Great Smoky; Nashville (BNA) is the next nearest. Great Smoky's busiest months are July and October (peak summer plus peak fall foliage). The park is free to enter at the gates, though a parking-tag fee was introduced in 2023; check the official NPS fees page for current rules. Spring wildflower season runs late March through April; fall foliage peaks mid-October at elevation, late October at lower elevations.

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Tennessee map with place names

Tennessee National Parks map: labeled satellite map, showing 1 locations: Great Smoky Mountains
Tennessee's 1 designated National Park. Dots mark general locations, not entrances. This map does not show every NPS source record in the directory below. Map: National Sites Guide, CC BY 4.0.

Customize or download the Tennessee map. Change the names, pins and background, or download a ready-made PNG or SVG.

NPS source records in Tennessee.

Tennessee has 15 records in our combined NPS metadata and visitor-statistics registry: 2 National Scenic Trails · 2 National Military Parks · 2 National Historical Parks · 2 National Battlefields · 2 National Historic Trails · 1 National Historic Site · 1 National River & Recreation Area · 1 National Park · 1 Parkway · 1 Wild & Scenic River. This is a source-record count, not the Park Service's official system-unit census. Combined 5-year-average annual visits: 29,660,558 (multi-state units count their full visits in every state they touch, see methodology). The most-visited record is Great Smoky Mountains National Park at about 12.82M annual visits.

Map of the broader NPS source-record directory
Every National Park Service site in Tennessee, mapped. Each glowing marker is one site, placed at its real coordinates and colored by type. Select a marker for its yearly visits and a link, or use the filters to show or hide a group. 11 of 15 units are mapped here; long-distance trails and units centered in another state are in the table below.
National Park Service sites in Tennessee, mapped Interactive map of Tennessee showing the location of 11 National Park Service sites, colored by type: national parks, monuments and memorials, historic sites, recreation areas and seashores, rivers, trails and parkways, and other sites. It includes the National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Each site is also listed with its yearly visits in the table below the map.

Marker positions are each unit's official NPS coordinates. State outline: U.S. Census cartographic boundary (public domain). Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

UnitDesignation5-yr avg visitsBusiest month
Great Smoky Mountains National Park National ParkGRSM 12,823,320 October
Natchez Trace Parkway ParkwayNATR 7,017,870 October
Appalachian National Scenic Trail National Scenic TrailAPPA 6,215,118 July
Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park National Military ParkCHCH 981,242 July
Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area National River & Recreation AreaBISO 790,481 October
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park National Historical ParkCUGA 767,728 October
Stones River National Battlefield National BattlefieldSTRI 404,752 May
Shiloh National Military Park National Military ParkSHIL 372,782 May
Fort Donelson National Battlefield National BattlefieldFODO 183,133 May
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site National Historic SiteANJO 55,230 May
Manhattan Project National Historical Park National Historical ParkMAPR 48,902 July
Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail National Scenic TrailNATT — —
Obed Wild & Scenic River Wild & Scenic RiverOBED — —
Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail National Historic TrailOVVI — —
Trail Of Tears National Historic Trail National Historic TrailTRTE — —

Methodology

Rows come from our combined NPS metadata and Visitor Use Statistics registry, not the Park Service's official census of 433 managed system units. Per-record visit counts come from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; the "5-year average visits" column is the mean of 2021-2025 Recreation Visits. Multi-state records are listed under every state they touch, and their full visit total appears in each state. Official National Park counts use the central 63-park classification rather than the source designation label alone. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

Adjacent reading

Independence

Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.

Last updated · 2026-09-10