I think I had this conversation not long ago too. I used to frequent smokey mountains a lot in the 1990's. Even then there were fee lots but plenty of ways to b

I think I had this conversation not long ago too. I used to frequent smokey mountains a lot in the 1990's. Even then there were fee lots but plenty of ways to bypass them, which I as a starving college student was pretty good at. OTOH, they don't really have a fee because a couple of major roads that are hard to avoid run right through the middle of the park. So, to me the recent moves sound more like they are closing all the loopholes around avoiding the parking fees (ex parking on the road rather than in the lot) which were there to replace the entrance fees.