Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the largest protected areas in the Eastern United States and is deservedly world renowned for the diversity of its plant and animal life.

Once a part of the Cherokee homeland, the Cherokees believe that this land was their Garden of Eden and on their website, point out that today's tourists can easily imagine why so many of them walked back from Oklahoma after being driven from their home. It says something about the region, that many people who are free to travel anywhere on earth choose to spend some of their happiest days amid the Smoky mountains.



Each year, the Smokies attract more than nine million visitors. It is truly a hiker's paradise with over 800 miles of trails, the park offers such great cycling routes that it is used as a training ground by Tour de France cyclists and it is reckoned to offer some of the finest trout fishing anywhere in the world.

The 2005 leaf season has been slow getting started in the park but trees are now showing vivid color; areas at mid elevation are approaching their peak and the lower elevations are expected to be following soon. The park's two webcams allow you to see for yourself how the fall is progressing.