Welcome to the Great Smokies Blog
Stories From The Smokies highlights interesting, out-of-the-ordinary aspects of life in the North Carolina mountains. We offer insider tips on things to do, places to go, and ways to make your Bryson City visit all the more memorable. Look for new posts in this space every few weeks. Or subscribe to receive updates by email.
Exploring Swain County Quilt by Quilt
On just about any drive through the North Carolina countryside, you may see a colorful painted quilt block pattern adorning a barn, public building, shop or private home. Such encounters are always a pleasant and unexpected surprise. They're all part of grassroots...
A Remnant of Bryson City’s Historic ‘Road to Somewhere’
Years before Bryson City had its well-known 'Road to Nowhere', there was another road that really did go somewhere. In the 1930s, NC 288 was the only road connecting Bryson City to Proctor, a lumber town in the western end of Swain County, and beyond. The road...
Eight Great Ways to Enjoy Your Winter Getaway in Bryson City
Once the holidays have passed, Bryson City has the perfect remedy for those dreaded winter doldrums — a weekend escape to the North Carolina Smokies. And even though you may assume it's the 'off-season', Bryson City offers many ways to enjoy your Smoky Mountain...
Christmas Parade to Honor Community Service Providers
46th Annual Bryson City Christmas Parade December 4, 2 pm This year, the Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade departs from its tradition of honoring a single Swain County citizen as grand marshall. Instead, the parade will acknowledge and celebrate the actions of the...
How a Tenacious Elk Cow Helped Assure the Smokies Herd’s Future
By 2010, ten years after Elk had been reintroduced to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, park officials were concerned that the herd population might never grow in size. Calves were being born but two out of three were not surviving the first year, mostly the...
The Bryson City Farm That Keeps On Growing
Ever since the first furrow was plowed in 1980, Jeff Darnell’s 100-acre wholesale farm has supplied regional grocers with such in-season fruits and vegetables as strawberries, tomatoes, onions, sweet corn, beans, peppers and blackberries. Early on, the most visible...
Things That Go Whoosh In The Night
In the Smokies, the nighttime sounds can be magical — a comforting chorus of katydids, crickets and tree frogs occasionally interrupted by a polite conversation of owls. But imagine the surprise when that nocturnal tranquility is broken by the startling “whooshes” of...
On Weekends, Swain County’s Growers and Artisans Bring Their Goods to Town.
In pioneer times, mountain families often subsisted by carrying their garden vegetables and hand-crafted items to town to sell. Today, those traditional cottage industries are very much alive, at the Smoky Mountain Farmers & Artisans Market in downtown Bryson...
Bryson City. A River Runs Through It.
If you enjoyed Robert Redford’s 1992 film starring Brad Pitt, the phrase “a river runs through it” evokes images of fly fishermen casting for Montana mountain trout. Yet that phrase also describes Bryson City, an Appalachian fly fisherman’s paradise where the...
Synchronous Fireflies – It’s The Toughest Ticket in the Smokies
If you want to see the Smokies' annual synchronous firefly show June 1–8, you'll have to win the lottery! Since 2006, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has limited access to the Tremont campground during the eight days of peak viewing in order to reduce traffic...
Bryson City’s Hellbenders Are a Once in a Lifetime Experience
A visit to Bryson City’s Appalachian Rivers Aquarium my be your only opportunity to see a reclusive hellbender. They’ve been around for 6 million years, yet there are people who have spent their entire life in these mountains and have never seen one. The aquarium has...
Spring Ephemerals Are The Big Kahuna of Smoky Mountains Wildflowers
White Fringed Phacelia and Creeping Phlox (Photos mid-April on the Oconaluftee River Trail) With more than 1500 native wildflower species, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is sometimes called “Wildflower National Park” thanks to the steady parade of wildflowers...
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