The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Great Smoky Mountains, the majestic climax of the Appalachian Highlands, are a wild lands sanctuary preserving the world's finest examples of temperate deciduous forest. The park boasts unspoiled forests similar to those the early settlers found. Wildflowers and migrating birds abound in late April and early May. Autumn's pageantry of colors usually peaks in mid- October. Some 800 miles of trails thread the whole of the Smokies' natural fabric - and its waterfalls, coves, and rushing streams. The Smokies, a wild landscape rich with traces of its human past, calls people back year after year.

The Oconaluftee Visitor Center is open daily except Christmas. It is one mile north of Cherokee, North Carolina. It is also near the southern terminus of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway. Its displays center on the economic and environmental changes associated with logging, farming, and other 19th century activities. Orientation information is available. Questions and comments are welcome.

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