What Horace Kephart can teach us about solitude, simplicity, and stillness
This article was originally published in 2020. We are sharing again in honor of Horace Kephart’s birthday, September 8, 1862. “Mountains! Think of them; speak of them; look upon them!… Here they are in all their majesty and abundance.” These words were written in 1905 by Isaiah Kephart, who supported his son Horace in a […]
Now accepting applications for 2024 Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency
Great Smoky Mountains Association is now accepting applications for its fourth Steve Kemp Writer’s Residency. The annual residency hosted by GSMA is designed to help writers of any medium connect in meaningful ways with Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing space for successful applicants to focus on their craft in an inspiring, retreat-like setting. […]
Wildflowers 101: White snakeroot and mountain gentian
Have you ever heard of “milk sickness”? What could something like that possibly have to do with wildflowers found in Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Read on to find out. The first wildflower we shall examine is white snakeroot. White snakeroot generally grows from one to four feet tall, and its white blooms appear from July through […]
Coming soon: The broad-winged hawk migration
As we prepare for the arrival of fall, we can also be on the lookout for a breathtaking wildlife spectacle that is a part of life here in the Southern Appalachian Mountains: the migration of the broad-winged hawk. Small forest-dwelling birds of prey, broad-winged hawks migrate annually to South and Central America from their breeding […]
Blue Ridge artist Tray Wellington builds bridges with bluegrass
Late last month, I was lucky enough to catch a special musical performance in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was a fine morning in high summer, and on the back porch of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, North Carolina, a four-piece string band launched into the first swirling notes of an original composition. […]
“The Green Tunnel” through the Smokies
The Appalachian Trail (AT) is an iconic American long-distance path. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it runs over 70 miles along the park’s high ridges and gaps, including Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the AT. For many hikers, it’s the premier trail in the park. And while the trail runs predominantly along the […]
Dykeman namesake among three new Smokies spiders
Although the word “spider” may elicit a “yuck” or an “ew” from many readers, the true nature of these oft-feared critters is not as icky as one might suppose. Arachnids provide essential services for humans and play key roles in balancing our ecosystems by keeping herbivorous insects in check. At the dawn of 2023, it […]
Yellow Jeep represents friendship for three Smokies lovers
The experience of being in nature on our public lands consistently inspires creativity, no matter the time of life. Over the past few years, I’ve become friends with GSMA member Carol Treiber, who is 88, and receiving the correspondence she sends from assisted living in Bryson City has been a constant source of joy. Carol […]
Horace Kephart, “a student, first, last, and always”
In early 2009, during the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Libby Kephart Hargrave, the great-granddaughter of noted Smoky Mountain writer Horace Kephart, offered a complete manuscript of an unpublished novel, written in the 1920s by her ancestor, to the director of Great Smoky Mountains Association for possible publication. The novel, […]
In search of the slippery salamander
It’s possible to hike hundreds of miles in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and never see a salamander. Even so, an exceptional number of the amphibians make their home in the mountains. Scientists have identified 31 species of salamander in the Smokies and might be on the precipice of adding another. They range from tiny […]
