A waterfall in the National Park of Smoky Mountains

A small waterfall

Around 22 million visitors, recreational visitors and non-recreational visitors have come to national park of Great Smoky Mountains yearly. The mountains cover two states, Tennessee and North Carolina.

We come through Tennessee entrance, luckily no entrance fee for smoky mountains. This is the only national park without entrance fee in the US. However, the relate tourist industries contribute billion dollars to revenue of states annually and encourages communities small scale enterprises that good for local economy. 

A small stream

We choose hiking routes provided by national park, since that we could observe beauty of nature through the trail. We found wild flowers seem to bloom year-round. We could also see a waterfall, rivers and streams.

There are dozens of waterfalls recorded by national park. We walk no more than 2 hours around, thus we can’t see a lot of things, but we feel amazing enough about the great Smoky mountains.  

Leaves colors start to change

There are around 100 species of trees in the great smoky mountains, include hickories, maples, oaks and sweetgum. In the early October, many trees start to change their leaves colors: green to yellow to red. 

Leaves colors changed

The best time to see fall foliage is from mid-October to early November. We could see yellow, half green, brown and red leaves at lower and mid elevations of the mountains. Look so wonderful for me.