The Great Smoky Mountains National Park reopened for visitors, with nature lovers, from left, Waymon Ashley, Terry Hill and Gordon Crawford, observing deer and turkey in Cades Cove.
Photo: Scott Keller/The Daily Times/Associated PressWASHINGTON—U.S. national parks and recreation areas are starting to allow visitors back in, as officials gradually open sections that were closed during the coronavirus pandemic, with the process expanding in coming weeks.
Three of the most-visited parks opened this past weekend—Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, Gateway in New York and New Jersey, and Glen Canyon in Arizona and Utah. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the parks system is looking to expand access in line with guidance from federal, state and local public-health officials, with park officials also consulting with elected leaders in each park’s home state.
“Now we’re really beginning to move,” Mr. Bernhardt said in an interview. “We continue to expand access, last week and this week and going forward you’re going to see it much more. But certain services and facilities may simply not be the same as what you might have experienced last summer.”
Photos from local media show cars streaming into Great Smoky Mountains National Park when it reopened this weekend, with packed parking lots and people walking along pathways in proximity to one another without wearing masks.
A Great Smoky Mountains park spokeswoman Dana Soehn acknowledged that visitors at showed little regard for social-distancing guidelines at several popular locations in the park, but added for the most part people were respectful of keeping distance with staff members while asking questions.
“Conditions never became overwhelming for staff or visitor congestion,” Ms. Soehn said.
President Trump has pushed to reopen U.S. businesses even while public-health experts warn doing so too quickly without precautions could accelerate the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 80,000 Americans.
Visitors to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Saturday made their way around the 11-mile loop.
Photo: Scott Keller/The Daily Times/APDr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s leading infectious diseases doctor, warned Tuesday that reopening businesses and other sites too quickly could cause more outbreaks and “needless suffering and death.”
Mr. Bernhardt is trying to accommodate Mr. Trump while managing sites that are both wide-open recreation spaces and crowded tourist attractions.
National parks could become a big problem because they weren’t designed to meet health guidelines that say people should keep at a distance to stop the spread of the virus, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that advocates for the park system. Park roads and trails lead visitors to specific attractions and often keep them out of many natural areas for conservation, creating a natural risk for crowding.
The association, which is tracking closings, said 224 parks remained completely closed as of Monday.
Popular Western parks including Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon remain closed, with no reopenings yet scheduled. Officials at Yosemite National Park said they are working on a plan for gradual reopening, although some facilities and services won’t be available at all this year.
Mr. Bernhardt said people should expect similar situations at other parks, with visitor centers, theaters and other venues within parks likely to remain closed even as park grounds reopen.
Park workers have some of the most contact with the public of all government employees, taking questions and giving directions often to excited park-goers. Many workers are concerned about visitors ignoring social-distancing precautions and potentially exposing employees.
U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, left, visited the Great Smoky Mountains national park on May 6.
Photo: /Associated PressThe National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees of the National Park Service who work at headquarters and Washington-area parks, said it agrees with members of Congress who have urged caution about reopening without safeguards in place. The union said it wants employee testing and remote working from home when possible for employees it represents across government.
“National Park Service employees, like most federal employees, remain apprehensive about returning to the workplace while the coronavirus pandemic persists,” Tony Reardon, the union’s national president, said. “Those in public-facing positions, like NPS employees who interact with park visitors, are understandably anxious about the potential exposure.”
An Interior spokesman said the department is supplying cloth masks to every park service employee, more than 70,000 in all.
The National Park Service, part of Interior Department, closed nearly 160 of its 419 sites early this spring as public-health officials looked to prevent crowds and keep travelers at home to stop the spread of Covid-19. The Grand Canyon closed April 1 only after a confirmed infection and a week of pressure from local officials, park managers and the Navajo Nation, whose lands abutting the park became host to one of the largest Covid-19 outbreaks in rural America.
Everglades National Park in Florida has been gradually reopening to the public. A boat headed out from the Flamingo boat ramp on May 4.
Photo: Lynne Sladky/Associated PressThe Interior spokesman said that decision came at the behest of the local public-health department. Such recommendations have led to some of the other closings, too, Mr. Bernhardt said, citing the still-closed Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
Mr. Bernhardt said he has worked with public-health experts within the department since the early days of the pandemic to craft guidance on when crowd control can keep parks open safely while safeguarding other department responsibilities like oil-well inspections and firefighting. Mr. Bernhardt said parks won’t reopen or stay open when local health agencies advise otherwise.
“We have, throughout this pandemic, any time a local health department that has raised issues just like that, we have completely accommodated that local health department,” he added. “Our goal is to basically align ourselves with the state guidelines.”
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Write to Timothy Puko at tim.puko@wsj.com
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