Park Reopening Puzzle: How Many People Across 522,427 Acres? (1)

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park that sprawls across 522,427 acres of North Carolina and Tennessee may seem like the perfect place to practice social distancing.

Yet visitors to its lush, mountainous terrain tend to congregate at well-known spots like Clingmans Dome, where they can stand at the highest point in Tennessee, or Grotto Falls, where they can walk behind a waterfall.

That tendency has park advocates and former employees worrying about its reopening last weekend -- and the plan for other national parks to follow in coming weeks at the urging of President Donald Trump -- even as coronavirus ...