Great Smoky Mountains · Sports & events

Neyland Stadium holds over a hundred thousand and fills for a season running September to late November. Tickets through the university, not the men outside the gate.

A half-mile concrete bowl about ninety minutes northeast, with a NASCAR weekend in spring and a night race in late summer. Loud in a way that is hard to overstate.

Dam-released whitewater near Hartford runs spring through early autumn, with an upper gorge for adults and a mellow lower run taking children from about eight.

Northbound thru-hikers pass through the park between March and May, at their hungriest. Seventy-odd miles of the trail run along the state line ridge.