Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in Tennessee and North Carolina.
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⛰️ Hill spots ⛰️ Hill station spots 🌲 Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests spots 🌲 Forest spots ⛰️ Mountain range spots 🌲 Nature reserve spots 🌲 Plain spots 🏞️ River spots 🏞️ Waterfall spots ⛰️ Highland spots 🌉 Humpback bridge spots Log cabin spotsLocated south of the Appalachian Mountains where it covers more than 2,000 square kilometres, the Great Smoky Mountains are the most visited national park in the United States, where many of the recreational and adventure activities available in Tennessee and North Carolina are concentrated. Hiking, camping and horseback riding are the most common activities, but the park also offers the opportunity to learn about the daily lives of the Cherokee Indians and European settlers who once called the area home. However, the park was almost never built. By 1934, when the U.S. Congress decided to designate the Great Smoky Mountains as a national park, about 80 percent of its forests had been decimated and much of its land had been privatized. With financial support from the states of Tennessee and North Carolina and donations from generous conservationists, the National Park Service was able to buy out the logging operations and lands of more than 1,200 landowners. The painstaking work of restoring the mountains to their former glory could then begin. The Great Smoky Mountains take their name from the natural haze that fills the valleys of the national park each morning due to the high humidity and organic compounds released by the dense vegetation that covers the land. Sunny, humid and calm days are particularly conducive to a thick fog. The Cherokee nicknamed it shaconage ('blue smoke'). Europeans who arrived in the area in the 1790s were attracted to the expression and chose to name the mountains by adapting the translation. While the park contains some of the highest peaks in the eastern United States, what is undoubtedly one of its star attractions is the incredible diversity of wildlife that makes the park truly special. It is often said that a walk through the park from the highest to the lowest elevation is the biological equivalent of crossing the United States from Georgia to Maine, which is how diverse the life forms are. In total, the park is home to more than 1,500 species of flowering plants and 240 types of birds, about 50 types of fish and more than 100 native tree species. In addition, five different forest types cover the park: pine and oak, northern hardwood, fir and spruce, hardwood river coves and various Tsuga trees. Although the vast majority of tourists never stray far from Highway 441, which runs through the park, the best hiking, bivouacking, viewing and nature experiences are found in the quiet corners of the Great Smoky Mountains, well away from the paved roads that encircle the park.
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