Mild late summer weather continued to bring visitors to Great Smoky

Mountains National Park as the park recorded 1,052,790 visitors in August

2012. This is a 5 percent increase when compared with visitation during August

2011.

Year-to-date visitation for 2012 is up by 8.8 percent, which works out to 521,252 more people than during the same time last year.

A breakdown of visitation numbers at the entrances:

Gatlinburg: 313,861 visitors

Townsend: 142,518 visitors

Cherokee: 215,188 visitors

13 Outlying Entrances: 381,224 visitors.

The January to August 2012 visitation is approximately 3.4 percent above the five-year average for number of visitors during the same time period.