The Beauty of a Smoky Mountain Springtime

Springtime is an especially good season to experience the rich, fertile ecosystem of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. To follow one of the many trails on foot is to enter a primordial world. There is a stillness. Hikers report a sense of entering another time as they step into this exotic biosphere.

Breathe deeply and feel the distractions and pressures of the city fall away. There is the rich, pungent scent of earth and new life awakening, pushing up through soil. Hikers experience the pulpy smell of the surrounding woods and the baked apple aroma of the decomposing leaves even as vibrant colors of wildflowers peep from grassy tussocks.

There are more than fifteen hundred varieties of wildflowers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Some are tiny, creamy white Bishop’s Cap, little explosions of beauty as though they are springtime’s answer to snow. And there is the large-flowered Trillium with its bell-shaped white flower which becomes a delicate pink as it ages. 

Hikers might glimpse the Purple-flowering Raspberry, the Crimson Bee Balm, Queen Anne’s Lace, Mountain Laurel, or the bright orange blossoms of the Trumpet Creeper.

There are splashes of lavender, purple violets, yellow buttercups, white baneberry. And fluttering in the soft springtime air there are colorful butterflies, especially the iridescent blue Swallowtail females. The male Swallowtails are bright green. Or you might glimpse one of the rare Easter Tiger swallowtails, yellow with black markings.

Hikers feel as though these trails are somehow part of another, primordial era. They are so near us, just a short drive from the Sevierville-Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg area. And yet these trails lead into such an exotic environment, a world somehow beyond time. Or perhaps it is a world beyond time as we experience it in the modern world.

Certainly, hikers feel a sense of healing as they let go and interact with this other world with its cleansing scents, like soil after a rain: a mineral scent. Breathing deeply, hikers experience an awakening of senses that have become dormant amidst the humming, buzzing noise of modern life with its pressures and demands.

There are so many kinds of life in the Smoky mountains. Winged, furry, fluttery, crawling. In addition to birds, butterflies, and insects, there are white-tailed deer, coyotes, and rabbits.

Even the streams are filled with life. Pygmy salamanders, for example, dart in the currents. Flat-head mayflies dry their wings in the sun as they cling to rocks. There is moss and bits of twig. Tiny, wriggling urchins common to pools and streams thrive there.

Thinking of the furry, four-footed life in the Smoky mountains, one of the most common and sought after is the black bear. There are more than sixteen hundred black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That works out to approximately two bears per square mile. Park officials advise caution. Keep at least fifty yards between you and a bear.

Sometimes the bears have been known to roam some distance from the park itself. One year, guests at Titanic Museum Attraction in Pigeon Forge were delighted to see a mother bear and her cub ambling along the Little Pigeon River below the museum. 

Certainly, the Great Smoky Mountains in springtime is a time to visit nature and enjoy what the Sevierville-Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg area offers. And it is a time for families to come together and to treasure this unique environment.

What an opportunity for parents to introduce their children to this nearby world, encouraging them to consider our connection to the diversity and beauty of this planet: our Earth.

We at Titanic Museum Attraction are aware of the need to preserve, to protect this exotic environment which characterizes the Great Smoky Mountains National Park area. Toward that end, we are this Spring introducing recyclable gift bags in our Retail Shop and recyclable water bottles.

And, as always, we continue to be ready for families and children to continue their invigorating experience of our area. We are particularly excited to help children grow and become aware of our planet and its history.

What better opportunity than to share the experience of learning to appreciate and interact with the diverse, primordial world of the Great Smoky Mountains?

After an invigorating hike along one of the Smoky Mountain National Park trails, challenge children’s sense of history by visiting Titanic Museum Attraction, where our objective is to give guests a fascinating, hands-on experience of history as they learn about why RMS Titanic has captured and held the fascination of generations of curious individuals eager to experience the mystery and the allure of this great ship, its passengers, crew, and the world of 1912.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers an opportunity to reconnect in ways we have in our modern world distanced ourselves from. Certainly, the Sevierville-Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg area offers families a wide range of experiences, invigorating the physical and intellectual appetite for the many facets of what it is to be alive in a world that offers such engagement to all who come to this diverse, historic region of Appalachia.