The Recreation Department maintains three Public Parks in Gatlinburg: Mynatt Park, Mills Park and Herbert Holt Park.
Each Park provides plenty of recreational opportunities for individuals and families to enjoy on a daily basis, including basketball, soccer, walking, and exercising tracks, picnic pavilions, tennis and pickleball at the Don Watson Tennis Center at Mynatt Park, and trout fishing to name a few.
Mynatt Park was recently renovated with an ADA Accessibility Project, consisting of concrete linear paths throughout the park, making it easy to access Leconte Creek which runs alongside the park. Many other upgrades were performed as part of this project, funded by the Gatlinburg City Commission and a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation grant, including lighting upgrades, new pickleball courts, public restroom renovations and the renovation of the pavilion and basketball courts. Other amenities at the Park include a playground area. In 2024, the City restored the Bruce Branam Field, which is a facility for youth baseball and softball. The Park is also home to the 2016 Wildfires Memorial and Tribute plaza.
Mills Park provides recreational opportunities in eastern Gatlinburg, including walking tracks, an 18-hole disc golf course, outdoor exercise equipment, a playground, an outdoor basketball/soccer court, two synthetic turf football, soccer, and lacrosse fields. The newest addition to Mills Park is the Gatlinburg Dog Park, which was opened in 2022. This state-of-the-art park provides citizens, as well as visitors vacationing with their faithful companions, a place to let dogs off their leashes and have fun with the entire family. The Gatlinburg Dog Park was funded by the City, as well as winning a Tennessee Dog Park Dash grant from the Boyd Foundation.
Herbert Holt Park also provides recreational opportunities at the northern entrance to Gatlinburg. Nestled alongside the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River, this park is home to some of the Recreation Department’s most unique offerings. This park was recently renovated in 2023 for improved river access, playground equipment, and parking upgrades.
At Herbert Holt Park is the Gatlinburg Trout Facility, which is the only publicly run facility of its type in Tennessee. Through this program, the Recreation Department grows trout in its raceways and then stocks those fish in the West Prong to help facilitate fishing in the area. Trout are released every Thursday and since the program began in 1981, the City has stocked over 1.3 million fish into the river. The City is also proud of its unique handicap-accessible fishing pier, named after former Mayor and City Commissioner Bill Stevens, who was an avid outdoorsman who had a vision for this pier to help aid everyone in fishing.
The Park is also home to the City’s greenhouse, which is maintained and operated by the Recreation Department. This greenhouse is where all the beautiful flowers, plants, and shrubs that make Gatlinburg beautiful are grown and maintained. The Recreation Department also places these flowers and plants around the City.
