The Great State of Tennessee, which happens to be my home state, has many exciting opportunities for visitors to explore some of what we have to offer here.

One of the most popular of these places are the Great Smoky Mountains that stretch from the Pigeon River to the Little Tennessee River along the Tennessee and North Carolina State line.

Some of the most notable mountains found in the Great Smoky Mountains include Clingman's Dome, Mount Chapman, Mount Collins, Mount Sterling, and Mount Guyot. Additionally, you will also find Thunderhead Mountain, Blanket Mountain, Mount Cammerer, Mount Le Conte, Old Black Mountain, Shuckstack Mountain, and Chimney Tops.

These popular mountains are known as the Great Smoky Mountains because of the natural fog that blankets them. This fog appears as large smoke plumes when observed from a distance, and comes from the warm humid Gulf of Mexico air that cools rapidly in their higher elevations, especially in the morning or after rainfalls occur.

The Great Smoky Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountain Range, the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province, the International Biosphere Reserve, and are a World Heritage Site. The mountains contain the largest old-growth forests east of the Mississippi River. These unique Appalachian Mountain cove forests are full of high populations of wild animals, the largest Appalachian spruce-fir forests, and a wide variety of wildflowers.

Other features of the Great Smoky Mountains include the largest Black Bear population in the eastern part of the United States, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most heavily visited Park in America.

Seventy-eight Appalachian buildings including Roaring Fork, the community of Elkmont, the Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church, and the Beech Grove School are found in the Great Smoky Mountains.

There are a wide assortment of well known cabins, springhouses, museums, corn cribs, hogpens, and other Appalachian life structures scattered among these mountains, as well as nine industrial locations and five historic districts, that are found on the National Register of Historic Places List.

White-tailed deer, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, European Bears, Indiana Bats, Northern Flying Squirrels, and elk make their homes in the Great Smoky Mountains alongside river otters, wild turkeys, hummingbirds, chickadees, warblers, and Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers.

Other species of wildlife you will find in these mountains include Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, whipperwills, woodpeckers, owls, rattlesnakes, copperheads, and several others.

Five of the world's thirty-one known varieties of salamanders, including Jordan's Redlegged Salamanders that are only found in the Smoky Mountains, reside here as well, and fishermen will enjoy numerous opportunities to catch rainbow trout, darters, shiners, and bass in the waters found in these mountains.

Great Smoky Mountains locations where Native American Cherokee Indians established settlements were known as Chilhowee, Tallassee, Tanasi, Chota, Kittowa, that is believed to be their oldest village, and Oconaluftee, their only permanent settlement, that was found within the boundaries of the National Park area. They also created many other locations in these mountains as well.

Native American Indians have resided in the Great Smoky Mountains since Prehistoric times and provided names for several of these mountains including Duniskwalgundi, meaning "forked antlers," for Chimney Tops, Tsitsuyi, meaning "rabbit place," for Gregory Bald Mountain, and Kuwahi, meaning "mulberry place," for Clingman's Dome.

One of the most favorite sites to see in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and known for the echo the Roaring Fork stream makes on the surrounding mountain ridges, is the eight mile long Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.

This trail passes by the 1800 to 1810 Roaring Fork Historic District, the first permanent European settlement in the White Oak Flats area of Gatlinburg, and a National Register of Historic Places site.

The Ephraim Bales Farm and dog-trot cabin that remains largely intact from the way it was built in the early 1900s, the Jim Bales Farm, the first historic stop on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, and the Alex Cole cabin, the last remaining Sugarlands Community structure, are favorite tourists sites in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Other such sites include the Alfred Reagan Farm, the Alfred Reagan sawboard cabin, one of the most famous historical buildings in the Great Smoky Mountains, the Noah Ogle saddlebag cabin with the last remaining four-pen barn, and last remaining tub mill, and the Junglebrook Historic District.

Found in the western section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Townsend, the Cades Cove Driving Tour is an eleven mile long loop that can take as many as six hours to complete depending on the time of day and the volume of tourists on the one lane, one way, road. Typically, more than two million tourists each year enjoy the historic buildings, abundant wildlife, and scenic beauty of this route.

Found on the Appalachian Trail, and standing 6,643 feet tall, Clingman's Dome is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains and contains panoramic views in all directions. Clingman's Dome possesses a summit full of Appalachian spruce-fir forests, the two sub-peaks known as Mount Buckley and Mount Love, the headwaters of the Little River and the Tuckasegee River, the base of Sugarland Mountain, the Forney Ridge, the Mountain-to-Sea Hiking Trail, and the Forney Creek Hiking Trail.

The Grotto Falls Trillium Gap Trail, that is found behind the 25 foot high waterfall of the same name, provides a cool, damp round trip hike through a hemlock forest from Gatlinburg to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, with five stops along the way, and is the only walk behind waterfall in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Named for the mountain laurels that grow abundantly in the area, and containing a two and a half mile long round trip paved hiking trail, the eighty foot tall Laurel Falls, that is located in the Cherokee National Forest, is one of the most popular locations in the Park. Laurel Falls remains full of tourists all year around especially on weekends and in the Summer months.

The Alum Cave Trail is considered the shortest, steepest, and most scenic of the five hiking trails leading through old-growth hemlock and yellow birch forests to the summit of Mount Le Conte.

This trail possesses several famous landmarks including Inspiration Point, the Eye of the Needle, a round, see-through, hole in the side of Little Duck Hawk Ridge, and the natural Arch Rock.

Other famous landmarks found along this trail include Gracie's Pulpit, the LeConte Lodge with its ten rustic cabins, the 4,950 foot tall Alum Cave Bluffs with views of West Point, High Top, Cliff Tops that is popular for watching sunsets, the Dolly Parton Peaks, and Myrtle Point that is well known for seeing the sunrise.

Gatlinburg's Mountain Farm Museum is a collection of nine structures gathered throughout the Great Smoky Mountains that include a springhouse, a blacksmith shop, a corn crib, a smokehouse, a barn, an apple house, a log cabin, and a chicken coop.

A wide variety of animals, and crops such as tomatoes, squash, pole beans, and corn, are farmed in the gardens on the property. The Farm also provides the annual Springtime Wildflower Pilgrimage, a seven day event with more than one hundred and fifty botanical experiences, seminars, guided tours, instructional walks, demonstrations, and guest speakers offering tourists many opportunities to learn about wildflowers, plants, trees, reptiles, and birds native to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Crowning Mount Sterling's seven mile ridge from Big Cataloochee Mountain to the Pigeon River Valley is a summit of Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests. Also on Mount Sterling visitors will find the five mile long Mount Sterling Ridge Trail between Laurel Gap and Mount Sterling.

The Baxter Creek Trail, the Pretty Hollow Gap Trail, and the Swallow Fork Trail are also found on Mount Sterling that is famous for providing some of the most scenic views in the Great Smoky Mountains including those of Mount Cammerer, Mount Guyot, Mount Le Conte, Low Gap, Cataloochee Mountain, and Baxter Creek.

Found along the Tennessee and North Carolina state line the Tail of the Dragon Scenic Drive at Deals Gap is one of the most popular motorcycle and sports car routes in the United States. This trail is also full of bears, wild turkeys, and wild boars.

Famous features found along this trail include The Hump, Cattail Straight, the Fugitive Bridge, the Cheoah Dam, the Tabcat Creek Bridge, The Slide Curves, and the Crossroads of Time.

Chimney Tops offers panoramic views of Mount Kephart, Mount Le Conte, Sugarland Mountain, and the Sugarlands Valley. Additionally, Chimney Tops is one of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's most popular hiking locations.

Chimney Tops is a double-capstone, bare rock summit on Sugarland Mountain's eastern slope that resembles deer antlers and features the Road Prong Trail, one of the oldest in the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Chimney Tops Trail, the most commonly accessed way of reaching the mountain's peak.

This in-depth article takes a look at one of the most popular places found in my home state of Tennessee. Come visit us and sit a spell. You will be mighty glad you did.