A local offers pros and cons and determines whether or not a visit to the Smoky Mountains is ‘worth it’ As someone who first visited the mountains as a tourist 40 years ago before moving south in 1990, I’ve something of a unique perspective. I’ve certainly been here long enough to take the mountains for granted. I get up every
Calling all arachnophobes – 3 new species of spiders have been found in the Great Smoky Mountains Last year, a pair of scientists announced they’d identified 10 new species of spiders, three of them residing in the Smokies. Some are surprised when they announce a new species in the park. However, as someone who has lived around the mountains for
Rich Mountain Road is a 200-year-old road hidden in the Smoky Mountains and it’s not for the faint of heart I learned to drive on the mountain roads of East Tennessee. I’ve rarely encountered a road that gave me much concern. That said, a couple of times, I’ve been caught underprepared. Maybe I didn’t pay close enough attention to the
Nearly half the residents in Cades Cove in the 1850s can be traced back to two families: The Olivers and the Shields As someone who has lived in and around the mountains of East Tennessee, I’ve heard all the insults. They’re particularly rampant on social media – especially if you frequent certain SEC football message boards. Mouth breeders or kissing
Brick chimneys and sawmill-hewn logs were not common in the late 1800s – so why does this cabin have them? Like many stories of life in the mountains, the story behind the Henry Whitehead House is imbued with hardship. As someone who grew up not far away, I’ve been soaking in the beauty of Cades Cove for nearly four decades.
These were the busiest months and most visited locations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2023 according to the National Park Service When is the best time to go to the Smokies? It depends on what you’re after. Do you want the peak colors of fall? The lush greens and warm weather of summer or the fresh renewal
The most visited National Park in the United States continues to attract millions of visitors year after year As someone who has endured traffic around Cades Cove for 34 years, the annual announcement of park visitors intrigues me. According to NPS.gov, there were more recreation visits to the park in 2023 (13,297,648) than in 2022 (12,937,635). Although 2023 wasn’t a
Visitors may notice sparser fish populations as of late, it turns out, the fish are just cold like we are As an East Tennessean with three decades worth of history in the park, I’ve learned that mountains don’t hibernate. Sure, the trees have lost their leaves, and the animals are less active. And fish, have all but seemingly disappeared in
Get a good look – these animals will likely never be seen again in the mountains of East Tennessee As someone who has lived in the Smoky Mountains for nearly 35 years, I often think about the mountains’ history. What was it like when red wolves roamed the hills? Or what would it have been like to see a flock
What you should know about armadillos As an East Tennessean, I have seen plenty of armadillo carcasses. But I’d never found myself face-to-face with one of the nocturnal mammals until recently. I had assumed that armadillos are essentially possums with chain mail. However, it turns out that armadillos have more in common with the anteater than they do the possum,