A record-breaking billions to trillions of cicadas are set to emerge this spring The cicadas are coming. How many cicadas? As someone who has spent way too much of his life worrying about cicadas, I can say officially, it’s a buttload. In Spring of 2024, a pair of specific cicada broods will be hatching at the same time for the
Get the inside scoop on things to do when it snows in Gatlinburg, Smoky Mountains There’s nothing quite like a Smoky Mountain snowfall. We’ve discovered a newfound love of snow we never knew until we became residents in East Tennessee. You see, I never cared for snow much in Ohio. Whenever the weather turned cold and snow was forecast, we
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
Gatlinburg resident shares his story of how roads turned into rivers during the January 2024 flash flood event I expected January 9, 2024, to be just another uneventful day in Gatlinburg. Sure, it had been raining since late the night prior. But the rising waters would soon provide much more drama than we could’ve ever anticipated. Our day began with my
Get a live look at what’s happening in the Great Smoky Mountains When you want a live view of the Smoky Mountains – whether you’re checking in on traffic, weather conditions or cute animals – there’s likely a live webcam that can fit your needs. With modern technology, live cameras make it easier than ever to “be there” without really
Many outlets, including our own, reported Popcorn Sutton had been diagnosed with cancer in his later years, this is the real story As someone whose newspaper covered the final trial of “Popcorn” Sutton, I don’t need Google to remember the milestones of the moonshiner’s final days. Today, we’re going to talk about a myth that’s grown up in the years
This is what it’s actually like to move to the tiny tourist town of Gatlinburg, TN – the gateway to the Smoky Mountains I fell in love with the Smoky Mountains and wanted to move when we arrived on vacation in 2011. But we didn’t get serious about it until about five years later. I felt much relief and excitement
Tennessee native talks little-known facts about the moonshine legend Almost everyone who grew up in and around Cocke County, Tennessee is familiar with the legend of Popcorn Sutton. Some view him as a folk hero, and others view him as a criminal. Still, his name is synonymous with one of the county’s greatest claims to fame: Real mountain moonshine. Born