Recreation+Gardening
Featured
-
Embrace a Smoky Mountain Autumn with Apple Orchards, Pumpkin Patches & Corn Mazes
When the air turns chilly and leaves change their hue, we are called to apple orchards, pumpkins patches, and corn mazes. These everlasting connections to a season of harvest is engrained in the collective American psyche. Read more
-
NPS photo
A Conversation With the Smokies’ Fire Manager
As the National Park Service’s acting Appalachian Piedmont Coastal Zone fire management officer, Shane Paxton handles fire-related issues for 22 national parks in four different states. Read more
-
Smokies Park Facing Stiff Challenges from Ever-Increasing Visitation
At Newfound Gap, where President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated Great Smoky Mountains National Park in September 1940, the plaque nobly notes that the park exists ‘for the permanent enjoyment of the people.’ Read more
Cataloochee Divide Trail
Most any time of year can be an excellent time to hike Cataloochee Divide, which generally marks the southeastern boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The divide is one of the ridges that separate Cataloochee Valley from the world. Read more
Oct 1, 2021
Holly Kays photo
Joining the Fungal Network
As the summer of 2020 heated up, I found myself in need of two things: a new hobby to beat the quarantine tedium and a shield from the constant stream of division that now populated my Facebook feed. Mushrooms, I found, were the answer to both. Read more
Oct 1, 2021
Solitude Done Right
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d taken off like this on a weekday, but in the summer of 2020, my sense of time was beyond muddled. Read more
Aug 1, 2021
Mountain Biking
The Southern Appalachian region is a panacea for outdoor enthusiasts of all types, including mountain bikers. Though I grew up in these mountains, I never enjoyed biking as a young girl. Read more
Aug 1, 2021
A Conversation With the Smokies’ Litter Fighter
Lisa Bryant moved from Missouri to Tennessee five years ago when her fiancée, a swim coach, found a job in the Great Smoky Mountains. She’d worked in the newspaper business for more than 20 years at the time of the move. Read more
Aug 1, 2021
Randa Harris
Randa Harris has kind eyes, and the kind of gaze that wells with empathy—for her students, for the environment, for the future. Her voice is nuanced: Though Southern, hers has a calming sweetness and wisdom to it. Read more
Aug 1, 2021
The Grandstand of the Great Smoky Mountains
At one time there were 10, strategically scattered across the Great Smoky Mountains. Ten fire towers, all but one constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, manned by wardens during the spring and fall fire seasons to watch for wildfires. Read more
Aug 1, 2021
Courtesy of Bridget Donaldson, Virginia Transportation Research Council
Searching for Safe Passage
Growing up in eastern Kentucky, Frances Figart loved any chance to glimpse the wildlife roaming those Appalachian foothills—except when the sightings occurred after the creatures had become roadkill, something that occurred all too frequently. Read more
Jun 1, 2021
