There is no driving to the summit hiking in is the only way to get there. LeConte Lodge sits close to the summit of Mount LeConte, at 6,360 feet the third highest peak in the park. Hiking Mount LeConte could be the bucket-list item for the Smokies. Here are our favorite points of departure for exploring the park. Great Smoky Mountain National Park has five visitor centers, ideal starting points for your journey. More than 1,500 species of flowering plants, 240 types of birds, and around 50 kinds of fish live there. The Smokies are known for their incredible biodiversity it’s said that moving from the lowest to highest elevations within the park is the biological equivalent of traveling from Georgia to Maine. The shaconage, as the Cherokee people call it, or “place of blue smoke,” is caused by moisture and organic compounds emitted by the dense vegetation, especially on still summer days. Park Service, and a whole lot of work to buy out the loggers and landowners, and to restore the Great Smoky Mountains to their glory.Īs the mountains regrew their 100 native tree species and over 100 native shrub species, the haze that gives the Smokies their name filled the mountain valleys in the early morning. It took the governments of Tennessee and North Carolina, donations from wealthy conservationists, the U.S.
Much of the land belonged to 1,200 small property owners. It was 1934 about 80 percent of the forest in the park had been decimated by logging. Visitor Centers: Oconaluftee, Sugarlands, Cades Cove, Clingmans Dome, Gatlinburgīy the time Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited park in the United States, was established it was almost too late to save it.
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