Updated: 11/25/2009 9:16:48 AM
Visits to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were down 4.1 percent in October, compared with the year before.
National Park Service spokesman Bob Miller said traffic into the park remains ahead by 4.3 percent for 2009 to date.
The drop last month came during the prime season for viewing fall foliage in the half-million-acre park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border.
Officials said much of the decline was attributable to the closing of the Cosby campground for repaving.
Entrances at Gatlinburg were up 4.4 percent, down 1.3 percent at Townsend and unchanged at Cherokee, N.C.
However, there was a combined 21.2 percent decline at the 13 outlying entrances to the park.
