Synchronized fireflies in Elkmont area of the Great Smoky Mountains

The firefly show will be here for 2010 before you know it.  If you’re wondering what I mean by a “firefly show,” it’s a unique show that can only be found 2 places on earth. One is a place in Southeast Asia.  The other is right here in the Smoky Mountains  

These fireflies flash synchronously. They may flash in waves, or flash on and off together, or all go dark at once.  It sounds like an inspiring way to spend an evening.  

Scientists don’t know why or how it happens, but it does.  I suppose this is just another aspect of “Smoky Mountain Magic.”  Since they are only adults for about 3 weeks, this firefly show only lasts for a week or so, usually the 2nd week in June each year.  The show starts at around 9:30PM each night.  The park has a trolley service that allows you to park at Sugarlands Visitor Center and ride up to the show in the Elkmont area. 

Believe it or not, these fireflies are just one of 14 different species of fireflies that live in the Smokies.

Here’s a post from my blog last year with a video of what you might see… https://gosmoky.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/catch-a-trolley-to-see-the-fireflies-work-their-light-magic-in-the-smokies/

If you plan to see the show for yourself, below is a list of “Light Show Etiquette” from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park website…

Light Show Etiquette
Flashlights disrupt the fireflies and impair people’s night vision. The light show is best when you:

• Cover your flashlight with red or blue cellophane.
• Use your flashlight only when walking to your viewing spot.
• Point your flashlight at the ground.
• Turn off your flashlight when you find your viewing spot.

You can also help protect the fireflies and their habitat:

• Do not catch the fireflies.
• Stay on the trail at all times.
• Pack out all of your garbage.

Here is the park’s webpage on the fireflies… http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/fireflies.htm

If you like the photo above of the fireflies from last year, you can buy a copy on knoxnews.com… http://www.knoxnews.com/photos/2009/dec/23/74639/

I will post much more on this topic as June approaches…

-Raymond

***This post brought to you by www.SmokyMountainTower.com.  Once you’re finished watching the relaxing show of the fireflies, you will want to relax and get some sleep before another great day in the Smokies.  The best way to do that is by staying at The Smoky Mountain Tower.  Check it out!***

DAY-1 Ski Trip in Maggie Valley…

Alright, we are finally back in the Smokies! We arrived at about 4AM (extremely late arrival is a long story) this morning at A Holiday Motel (www.holidaymotel.net) in Maggie Valley.  We slept for about 6 hours before getting out of the room at around 11AM this morning.  We were skiing at Cataloochee (www.cataloochee.com ) soon thereafter.  There was a snow storm moving into the area.  That’s good news, because that means lots of great powder. The bad news is, it snowed so hard, they had to close the slopes early.  We were planning to ski until they closed at 10PM, but they had to close at 4:30PM due to the extreme snow.  The snow is not a problem at the top of the mountain, but considering you have to drive back down the mountain, the snow-covered roads are the reason they had to close early.  We were just about the last people on the mountain before we left.

Now, keep in mind, on our way UP the mountain, just a few hours earlier, there were bits of snow on the sides of the road, but just a little white here and there.  As you can see by these photos we took on the way down the mountain, the entire area now looks like a winter wonderland.

Here’s a look at some fields on the way down the mountain.

Then, another of the cabins you see along the road down the mountain.

The Cataloochee folks tell us they expect lots of additional snow throughout tonight.  They plan to open at 8:30AM tomorrow, and will stay open until 10PM.  IF that happens, we plan to be there from open to close.  We’ll post more photos from tomorrow once we get back from the slopes.

Also, I wanted to let you know when we will be airing another “LIVE IN THE SMOKIES” episode of the GoSmoky.com Internet Talk Show.  I will be hosting a show on THIS Sunday morning from Maggie Valley.  I plan to have several guests on the show, including a representative from the N.C. Department of Transportation.  He spent several days last week at the site of the rock slide on I-40.  He’ll update us on the project. That “LIVE FROM THE SMOKIES” episode of the GoSmoky.com Internet Talk Show will take place this Sunday morning at 8:30AM.  I will post the show link here on the blog.  You can listen live, or listen to the show podcast later at the link.  Stay tuned!

-Raymond

***This GoSmoky.com trip to the Smokies is brought to you by www.holidaymotel.net and www.cataloochee.com.***

“Life on LeConte” blog…

I’ve found a new Smoky Mountains website to add to my list of “favorite sites.” It’s at www.lifeonleconte.com. 

Doug McFall is the winter caretaker of LeConte Lodge.  He runs the blog from the lodge. 

I’ve always said that if I ever get the time/money to be able to spend extended time in the Smokies creating stories for the GoSmoky blog, I’d like to make small documentaries about various aspects of those mountains.  Spending some time up at LeConte Lodge during the snowy off-season would be one of the things I’d love to do a story on. 

Doug’s blog is basically his updates on life on the mountain.  The photos he has there are incredible.  I don’t know how much is due to his photograghic ability, or how much is simply due to the fact that the Smokies are extremely photogenic… especially when dusted with snow.  Just take a look at the photo below… it looks like a piece of artwork. Then again, it is.  God knew what he was doing…

I’d recommend you bookmark his site.  I’ve invited him to be on my online GoSmoky radio show, but right now management of LeConte Lodge doesn’t want him doing interviews.  That’s too bad for us and them.  I’ll bet Doug could tell us some great stories from the mountain, and more people could find out about what the lodge has to offer.

Enjoy his blog!!

Raymond

***When you stay in the Smoky Mountains, stay where we stay, at www.smokymountaintower.com.  They support the gosmoky.com blog. Check out the photos of the view from the tower now!***

Snow is in the area, skiing is great on the slopes!

There’s a photo from the webcam at Purchase Knob in the National Park.  I love snow in the mountains.  You can see the live view by clicking on my live webcams link above, or just click here… https://gosmoky.wordpress.com/smokies-webcams/ . 

The snow means skiing is great right now on the slopes at Ober Gatlinburg in Gatlinburg and Cataloochee in Maggie Valley.  Both resorts are reporting close to 30+ incheas of snow.  Above is  a look at the ski mountain at Cataloochee this morning.  Looks like a blast on the slopes… www.cataloochee.com is the direct link to see a live look at this webcam.   Click the following link for a look at live webcams at a number of southeast ski resorts.. http://www.skisoutheast.com/webcams.htm

Then, you can see snow in Gatlinburg at the Gatlinburg live webcam above the Space Needle.   Check it out.. control it yourself:)  http://www.cabinfevervacations.com/gatlinburg-web-cam.html

This is a great time to visit the Smoky Mountains.  Not only is it beautiful, but there are fewer crowds, and places to stay are much cheaper. 

Raymond

**You can also see some great snow photos from the website of our favorite place to stay in the smokies, the Smoky Mountain Tower… they have some great snow photos at the blog, http://smokiesrentdirect.blogspot.com/2009/12/greetings-from-snowy-gatlinburg.html **

Our drive up to Clingmans Dome…

I’m continuing my blog posts about our trip last weekend in the Smoky Mountains.  This time, it’s our drive up to Clingmans Dome. 

One of the first sites you see after driving past the Sugarlands Visitor Center toward Clingmans Dome is the Chimney Tops mountain. 

Above is sort of a side view of Chimney Tops.  Veronica and I hiked up to the very top the last time we were to the Smokies without the kids.  The very top is as close to climbing a sheer rock face without ropes as I ever want to get.  But it was well worth the hike. 

This is the tunnel my family now refers to as the “knot” tunnel.  If you’ve ever listened to the audio tape they sell at the visitors centers that gives you a driving tour of the road between Gatlinburg and Cherokee, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.  As the story goes, when they were building the road, they had some extra road left over.  They decided to just tie it into a knot to use up the extra road.  The girls get a kick out of that every time we drive through.

We continued our drive down the road, and through some of the best scenery in America…

As you can see, we had clouds most of the time during this trip…

The only problem with driving is, sometimes you don’t get a chance to fully appreciate the trees.  But it was a bit cool, so we decided not to stop until we got to Clingmans Dome.

You can see a little color in the trees, but clearly, there is more color to come this season.

Ok, we’ve made it to the Clingmans Dome parking area.  These are some of the best views in the Smokies.  I’ll post a full “Clingmans Dome Hike” blog soon:)  I hope you’re enjoying these trip report “posts” from the Smokies…

***If you’re planning a trip to the Smokies, plan to visit www.smokymountaintower.com to find the place you want to stay.  You’ll love it as much as my family and I do!***

Our afternoon in Gatlinburg…

We spent a couple of hours in Gatlinburg this trip.  I’ve mentioned before, it seems like the more we visit the area, the less time we spend actually IN Gatlinburg.  But we do enjoy spending some time there.  We walked down the strip and took a ride up the chair lift.

The irony of this fall decoration is, I assume they have teepees out there (this one behind the aquarium) are representing the Cherokee Indians.  Well, they didn’t really use teepees.  Oh well, they have teepees in Cherokee as well (tourists want photos next to them even if they are not authentic.)  Cherokee generally lived in cabins. 

I took this photo, because it seems like the flowers in the area are always bright and beautiful. It has been rare that you see them actually being planted.  It would be interesting to talk to the city workers who keep the plants fresh, because it appears they are constantly updating the plants in the city.

The girls had fun coloring to pass the time at lunch at T.G.I. Friday.

After lunch, it was down the parkway to the chair lift.

It’s always fun, and slightly scary when you sit with your child next to you on a swing made of pipe attached (by a small hook) to a wire being pulled directly up a mountain.

But, there is nothing like the view from the top.  Sort of like life in general… you often have to do things that scare you to get to the best views in life.

 

 

 

After the chair lift, the girls wanted to “go play with the big marble” at Ripley’s across the street…

Then, to Veronica’s favorite candy store in Gatlinburg (she loved the sugar-free fudge)…

It was time to check out once everyone had a little candy…

Finally, a last photo before heading back to the car… posing in front of Ripley’s Aquarium

 

***This post brought to you by our favorite place to stay when we’re in the Smokies, www.smokymountaintower.com .  It has some of the best views of the mountains.  Check it out!***

Our drive down the Foothills Parkway

When we go to the Smoky Mountains, we like to explore areas we’ve never been.  That’s how we found Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail (if you’re laughing out loud wondering why someone would not know RFMNT exists, we also met a couple, THIS TRIP who visit Gatlinburg all the time… they were on their 10th anniversary trip, and they said they just discovered it as well.)

We discovered a couple of things new during this trip.  One, as you can see above, is the Foothills Parkway.  Note the leaves on the ground (proof it’s fall:) While we’ve been on a little bit of the parkway in the past, I don’t think we’ve ever been on the parkway from Townsend to Look Rock.   I THOUGHT the fire tower at look rock was the brick tower that the Friends of the Smokies restored (Mt. Cammerer Fire Tower.)  However, even though I was wrong about that, on Saturday, our trip to Look Rock was worth it none-the-less. 

The drive was a nice drive, and not too long.  When you have young kids in the car, they don’t want to be in the car for long stretches of time.  I think it was about 20 miles from Townsend, and almost always on beautiful roads.  It was quite foggy, so there wasn’t much of a view when we went up the tower… see below…

 

There were many, many beautiful photos just waiting to be taken…

I told my kids, sometimes being in the mountains makes me think God is bragging. 

My 10 year old rolled her eyes, but I think it might be true…

The photo above is from the Look Rock parking area.  There is a brick area to stand at and admire the beauty.  This is one view of that beauty.

There were so many trees with beautiful leaves changing color…

The cloudy, foggy feel in the forest while we were walking through seemed like something out of a movie…

Anyhow.. I hope you enjoyed this trip through the woods and to the Look Rock Tower.  This was only about an hour of our long weekend, and I’m only posting about 1/4 of the photos we took (we take too many photos.)

 I have a number of photos from just about everything we did this past weekend.  I’ll post them as a series of posts.  I know I love to see new pictures from the Smokies, so I assume you do as well.  There’s more to come.

Raymond

***Some of our favorite pictures/times in the Smokies are spent at www.smokymountaintower.com .  I’m sure you’ll enjoy your stay there as much as we do.  Dave and his wife own the home, and they rent it out to their guests who love the Smokies.  You’ll see why we’ve stayed there several times when you stay at “the tower” :)***

Take a 30 second trip to the Smoky Mountains!

 

I saw that Dave from www.smokymountaintower.com posted this 30 second video of the views from the tower.  Those are basically the same types of photos we've taken when we've stayed there.  It's a great quick trip to the mountains.  Click the link below to his blog with the video... Enjoy!

http://www.smokiesrentdirect.blogspot.com/

A number of new photos from Cades Cove… from a recent blog.

(the photo above is not from the blog)

I found this blog with some new photos of Cades Cove. There are a number of them there from a recent trip to the Smokies by the author of the blog… enjoy!

http://dadoodlediva.blogspot.com/2009/04/cades-cove-smoky-mountains.html

 

Speaking of photos, on “The GoSmoky.com Network” I have a photo page, and you can literally upload your photos from the Smoky Mountains now directly to the page.  Click here to upload photos, or to take a look at the photos that have been uploaded so far!

http://gosmoky.ning.com/photo

Panaramic views of the the beautiful Smoky Mountains.. during multiple seasons photos

 

Take a look at these photos from the Smokies… I figured we all love to see pictures (those links are some of the most popular things people click on my blog.) I must admit though, these photos are personal as well.  They bring back memories for me, because these are from Dave’s blog.   He owns these homes, and the Mountain Tower is where we stay now when we go to the Smokies:)  Enjoy!

Click for more… http://smokiesrentdirect.blogspot.com/2009/04/view-from-tower.html