One of the best things about the mountains of Western North Carolina is that even in places we’ve seen a hundred times, we can always find something new and intriguing. This is a lesson Nancy East, an avid hiker and seasoned search-and-rescue operator, learned over and over again as she wrote her second book, “Historic Hikes in Western North Carolina.” 

With 360-degree vision, bright-colored bodies that sparkle jewel-like in the sun and acrobatic flight patterns reaching speeds of nearly 35 miles per hour, dragonflies are some of the more glamorous members of the insect world.

Visitors should plan for single lane closures on Cosby Entrance Road through June. 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has reopened the Cosby Area following the construction of a new culvert under Cosby Entrance Road. 

It’s wildflower season in the Great Smoky Mountains, and beneath the long morning shadows at Chestnut Tops Trail near Townsend, Tennessee, Tom Harrington is in his element. We’ve barely reached the trailhead sign before Harrington, a hiking and “wildflowering” aficionado and park volunteer of 25 years, pauses to point out the colonies of purple flowers painting the path — purple phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida), a native wildflower whose nectar is said to make some of the best honey around.

The National Park Service has selected LeConte Lodge L.P. as the concessioner for the new contract to provide services at LeConte Lodge in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This contract will be effective for 10 years from 2025 to 2035. 

Visitors should prepare for planned routine road maintenance in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

Park maintenance crews will implement temporary, single-lane closures along the north and southbound Spur between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge through May 1 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then from May 5-8 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

On Sunday, April 27, with the cooperation with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the North Shore Cemetery Association will begin a year of decorations at Branton and Lower Noland Creek Cemeteries.

The four-state mountain region that includes Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to an estimated 14,500 black bears, but one particular animal had caught the attention of a watchful police chief in one of the park’s gateway communities.

As Spring begins, Great Smoky Mountains National Park reminds visitors of group size limits during the popular wildflower season at Whiteoak Sink. Individuals and small groups of eight or fewer people may access the Whiteoak Sink area throughout the wildflower season Tuesday, April 1, through Sunday, May 4. 

Every year, millions of people visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park to experience its clear mountain streams, verdant views, and diverse forms of natural beauty. The mountains exert a powerful spell — but too often, that spell is broken by the sight of plastic bottles and candy wrappers scattered beside trailheads and overlooks, fast food bags and old tires flung along roadsides and plastic bags or balloons hung in treetops.