Pigeon Forge, Nashville & The Great Smoky Mountains

May 17-22
October 4-7
December 14-19

Great Smoky Mountains State Park

Viewing wildlife in the Smokies can be challenging because most of the park is covered by dense forest.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park holds one of the best collections of log buildings in the eastern United States. Nearly 80 historic structures—houses, barns, outbuildings, churches, schools, and grist mills—have been preserved or rehabilitated in the park.

NEWFOUND GAP

In southern Appalachian vernacular, a gap is a low point in a mountain ridge. New Englanders call such places “notches” while westerners refer to them as mountain “passes.” At an elevation of 5,046 feet, Newfound Gap is the lowest drivable pass through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

A trip over the Newfound Gap Road has often been compared to a drive from Georgia to Maine in terms of the variety of forest ecosystems one experiences. Starting from either Cherokee, North Carolina or Gatlinburg, Tennessee, travelers climb approximately 3,000 feet, ascending through cove hardwood, pine-oak, and northern hardwood forest to attain the evergreen spruce-fir forest at Newfound Gap. This fragrant evergreen woodland is similar to the boreal forests of New England and eastern Canada.

The Appalachian Trail crosses over Newfound Gap Road and straddles the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee for most of its length through the park.

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© 2008 BVT America
1972 State Highway 165, Suite J • Branson, MO 65616
Phone 417-336-6122 • Fax 417-336-6126