Discovering the Beautiful Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was named after the dense blue haze that covers its mountains.

The ancient indigenous communities that populated this area called it Shaconage, which in the Cherokee language means “Place of blue smoke.”

Walking in these mountains was a unique experience, every step I took in the moss-covered forests was completely magical, finding the small wildflowers in the mist, enjoying each sunrise above the clouds, and listening to the dry leaves rustling under my feet when the forest fills with the golden sunset light.

My visit was at the end of October. It is difficult to predict autumn, especially in a place where the altitude of the mountains also affects when the leaves change color and when they start to fall. In the lower areas, they may still be green, while at the top, the trees may have completely lost their foliage, but that same diversity is wonderful.

The idea of creating the park dates back to 1890, but finally, the date of its creation was 1934. It is the most popular park in the United States and receives an average of nine million visitors annually.

One of the park’s great achievements has been successfully reintroducing the elks from the beginning in 2001. The last seen disappeared from Tennessee in the mid-19th century. Today the herd has more than 200 animals!

More than in any other national park, one thousand five hundred species of wildflowers are found in the Smoky Mountains. It is also home to 250 species of birds, 70 species of mammals, 645 species of mosses, and 4,500 fungi and lichens.

To read this post in Spanish and watch the Spanish version of the video, please follow the link:

https://caminandoentrelasaves.com/las-hermosas-montanas-humeantes-en-el-otono/