Like Joe Offer, I have been to the Smokey Mountain park via Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Pigeon Forge is incredible; my reaction is similar to Joe's. I had a wonderful walk in the park. But everyone who lived on the land was compelled (with compensation) to leave when the park was created. I suspect that the towns at the edge of the park grew and developed in the way that they have because he park draws tourists. The irony is that creating the park brought more environmental degradation in the form of traffic and tinsel towns.