How we work
Editorial policy
Where our facts come from, how we keep them current, and what we will and won’t do.
Sources come first
Park facts come from the National Park Service: trail and road pages, the seasonal road schedule, the temporary closures page, fees and passes, and park news releases. Town and attraction facts come from the official tourism offices of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, Blount County, Swain County, Haywood County and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and from the businesses and event organizers themselves. Reputable regional news outlets are used to catch changes, then confirmed at the source where possible.
We link to the source on the fact itself, so you can check it in one click.
Keeping it current
- Events are checked against the organizer’s published dates. When an annual event hasn’t announced next year’s date, the calendar says “dates TBA” with its usual timing instead of guessing. Ended events drop off automatically.
- Places carry a “facts checked” date. Closed businesses are removed, and seasonal closures (such as the winter closure of Kuwohi Road) are noted on the pages they affect.
- Hand-written guides show the date they were last updated.
What we won’t do
- We don’t invent details. If we can’t confirm an hour, a price or a distance, we leave it out or tell you to check.
- We don’t claim first-hand experiences we haven’t had, and we don’t publish fake reviews or ratings.
- We don’t accept payment, free stays or free tickets for coverage, and commissions don’t affect recommendations. See how we make money.
How we use AI tools
We use AI tools to help research, organize and draft pages, and to help check them for errors. Every factual claim is held to the same sourcing standard above, and pages are reviewed against primary sources before and after they are published.
Many photographs on the site are AI-assisted: a real photograph of the place is used as the reference and enhanced or re-rendered (for light, season or resolution) with an image model, then checked to make sure it still shows the right place. They are illustrations of what you’ll see, not documentary photos of a specific day.
Corrections
Found an error? Email [email protected] with the page and the problem. We check every report against the source and correct the page; significant corrections are reflected in the page’s updated date.
Mountain Insider is published by Appalachian Frontiers LLC.