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,
A Smoky Mountain local talks about his favorite hidden gems in the most popular section of the national park – Cades Cove Cades Cove is one of the true wonders of the Smoky Mountains. Known for sweeping views, wildlife watching and connection to pre-national park history, the Cove is the single most popular destination for Great Smoky Mountains National Park visitors.
What you need to know about bobcats As someone who has lived in rural areas up and down East Tennessee, I am familiar with the bobcat. So yes, they do live in Tennessee. In fact, there are bobcats almost everywhere. IN THIS ARTICLE Where do bobcats live? Are they common? Bobcats can be found from Florida and all the way
A history of Elkmont and what to know before you go What is known as the Elkmont ghost town is a former logging camp town and once-booming resort town near the Sevier-Blount County line in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The first settlers in the 1800s were mostly hunters, homesteaders and small-scale loggers. IN THIS ARTICLE The history of
How to make hiking in the Smokies safer As a local, I’m frequently asked the question: Is it safe to hike in the Smoky Mountains? The answer is an unequivocal yes from a statistical standpoint. Millions of people visit the Smoky Mountains annually. The number of those who encounter trouble or dangerous situations is very few. Still, there is nothing
A showdown of two popular national parks I had the chance to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park, and I couldn’t help but compare it to my home, the Great Smoky Mountains. The two national parks share a lot in common. They’re mountainous, offer great hiking trails and are stunningly beautiful. But, we’re probably kidding ourselves here to think the
The Cherokee Legend of Spearfinger: What Did She Look Like? The Great Smoky Mountains are full of wonder and also full of folklore and legends. And if you’re looking for a great story to tell by the campfire, there’s probably none more infamous than the Cherokee legend of Spearfinger. A legend being made famous once again thanks to Mountain Monsters
Tennessee local lists favorite little-known facts about the Smokies I always say that it’s no surprise an ancient mountain range cloaked in a thick forest and shrouded in mist has secrets. Each year, the mountains reclaim that which was forgotten or abandoned when the park drove away those who’d lived in the mountains. Of course, the National Park Service has
A Smoky Mountain local talks about one of his favorite area overlooks We were cutting through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, returning home from Bryson City, North Carolina on Newfound Gap Road – aka U.S. Route 441. I was driving so my attention was on the road and I missed some of the natural beauty of the spruce-fir forests. I
The Walker Sisters Place and the women who lived within, surviving off of the land, selling trinkets to tourists In the Great Smoky Mountains, history is often found in the hollers, in the lingering crannies found in the shadow of giant mountain ridges. It’s in these historic places that the great passage of time, which in our everyday lives is