8 Surprising Facts About Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Around A.D. 1000, the Cherokee settled in the Smoky Mountains. They lived in small villages in areas that include what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park, hunting, fishing and farming the land. By the 1800s, the U.S. government began seeking to remove Indigenous people from their land. In 1838, the Cherokee were forced west by the U.S. military on the Trail of Tears.

Yet, a small group of Cherokee hid in the woods and were eventually allowed to stay in the area. They became known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and now reside in the Qualla Boundary that borders the park in North Carolina. Each year, they collect sochan, a member of the sunflower family with edible shoots and leaves, in the park, says Jeff Hunter, the southern Appalachian director of the National Parks Conservation Association.

The Cherokee named the area Sha-co-na-qe (or Shaconage), meaning “place of blue smoke.” The mountains’ “smoke” is actually caused by evapotranspiration, a process that occurs when water is evaporated from the ground and when trees soak up moisture from wet soil and release it into the air as water vapor. It appears as a blue mist or haze hanging over the park.

“There’ll be rising columns of mist coming out of the forest,” Hunter says. “Just recently I was driving in the mountains here, and I saw that phenomenon, and it made me think, ‘Gosh, that does look like smoke coming out of the forest.’”

Since 1934, the Great Smoky Mountains have regularly attracted more annual visitors than any other national park. In its first year, the park saw 420,000 recreational visits, outpacing that year’s second-most visited park, Rocky Mountain, by more than 54,000. In 2025, the Smokies had more than 11.5 million visits, far ahead of Zion’s second-place tally of nearly 5 million.

There are a few reasons for this. The park is located within a day’s drive for more than 60 percent of Americans. Beyond that, the popular Blue Ridge Parkway connects Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, bringing visitors to the more southern park. Finally, the Appalachian Trail, one of the most well-known hiking trails in the country that attracts millions of people annually, cuts through the park.

“In terms of national parks in the temperate world, the Smokies is one of the most biologically diverse,” Hunter says. “New species are being discovered all the time in the Smokies, and that’s something that people are not aware of.”

Scientists estimate there are as many as 80,000 species in the Smokies, and Discover Life in America has set out to catalog them. Since 1998, more than 22,000 species have been recorded, 1,000 of which are new to science.

Some animals have successfully returned to the region since the park was established. In 2001, elk were reintroduced after an approximately 150-year absence; today, there are roughly 270 living in the area. Another returning species is the North American river otter, which experienced successful reintroduction efforts beginning in 1986.

Although the highest peak in the eastern United States, 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell, is part of the Black Mountains, Great Smoky Mountains National Park boasts many peaks that are nearly as tall. The highest point in the park (and the Appalachian Trail) is 6,643-foot Kuwohi (formerly Clingmans Dome). A Cherokee word, the mountain’s name translates to “mulberry place.” The other peaks above 6,500 feet are Mount Guyot, Mount Le Conte (High Top) and Mount Buckley.

“[The park] is the epicenter of the world’s salamander diversity,” Hunter says. The Smokies are home to 31 species of salamanders—more than anywhere else on Earth. This includes 25 species of lungless salamanders, which breathe through their wet skin, and the Eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis), North America’s largest salamander. The park typically has more salamanders by weight than all other vertebrates, including humans.

There are 19 species of fireflies in the park, two of which Hunter says are particularly enthralling. One is the blue ghost firefly (Phausis reticulata), which casts a sustained blue hue that lasts for up to a minute at a time. “It’s mesmerizing, and it’s magical, and they’re not [found] everywhere,” Hunter says.

The other species prone to catching visitors’ attention is the synchronous firefly (Photinus carolinus). The park even holds a ticketed lottery for viewing the fireflies’ coordinated flashing patterns that peak during mating season every May or June.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park once had 10 fire towers, where fire lookouts lived and reported any wildfires. Today, hikers can make their way to the four remaining, defunct towers and experience the view from inside three of them. The Mount Sterling fire tower, accessible from two challenging hiking trails, stands at the highest elevation of any in the eastern United States: 5,902 feet.