Great Smoky Mountains – Comfort Spring

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

When I was 5 years old, my family moved from Mobile, Alabama on the Gulf of Mexico to the mountains of east Tennessee. I was so excited to see mountains. If you have driven through Alabama, you know land around the Gulf is very flat. I was used to beaches and water not mountains and forests. That first visit to the Smokies is burned into my memory. My brother and I hung our heads out of the car windows with our mouths open. We wanted to “taste” clouds as we drove in the mist up to the top of mountains. I returned to the park many times throughout my childhood and into my young adult years. I love living in Florida now, but my heart beats faster every time I drive the interstate up to Tennessee and see the mountains. Today let’s visit the most visited national park in the United States, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Have you been to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Straddling the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, the Great Smoky Mountains are the highest mountains in the Eastern United States with sixteen peaks rising more than 6,000 feet. Part of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the Smokeys are an ancient treasure over 300 million years old. World renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains, and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture, this is America’s most visited national park. Today we’ll visit Elkmont Ghost Town, the remnants of a recreational community of the east Tennessee wealthy in early 20th century.