Experience the best of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smokies are part of the southern Appalachians, a range of rounded, forest-covered ridges named for the bluish haze that hangs over them. The park, which straddles the line between Tennessee and North Carolina, covers more than half a million acres and is listed by UNESCO. Clingmans Dome, at 2,025 metres the highest point in the park and in Tennessee, has an observation tower above the spruce-fir forest.

Newfound Gap Road crosses the mountains, and the Appalachian Trail follows the crest. Cades Cove, an open valley with log cabins, churches and mills, is a good place to see deer and black bears, while Laurel Falls and the Alum Cave Trail lead to waterfalls and the top of Mount LeConte. Elk graze in Cataloochee on the North Carolina side. The gateway towns are Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in Tennessee, and Cherokee in North Carolina.

Mountain fare means biscuits with country ham, cornbread, beans, apple butter and smoked trout. In spring the woods are full of wildflowers, in June fireflies blink in unison near Elkmont, and in October the maples and hickories turn orange and red. The high ridges stay cool in summer and collect snow in winter.