Great Smoky Mountains
by Sarah and Andrew
About The Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is situated on the borderline between Tennessee and North Carolina, which implies that it’s in the south-east region. It can snow at any given time, except in the summer. The climate changes frequently, so it could be scorching hot one day and snowing the next. In the park’s area, thunderstorms occur generally. The Great Smoky Mountains gets its name because of the fog up high in the mountains. It’s foggy at the climax because the temperature on the mountain is cooler than the air, and the colder temperature causes the warm air to condense and become mist, and then it forms fog. The fog makes the peaks of the mountains look smoky, so that’s why they call the park Great Smoky Mountains.
This beautimus park includes many diverse flora and fauna. Some of the vegetation you may stumble across include over 1,600 flowering plants, including over 100 native tree species and over 100 native shrub species. There are also over 450 different kinds of bryophyte-mosses in the Smokies. Some of the animals that you may come upon are some 65 species of mammals, over 200 varieties of birds, 50 native fish species, and more than 80 types of reptiles and amphibians. The Smokies definitely have a plethora of life throughout the park.How Sugarland Mountain Was Formed
The formation of Sugarland Mountain started millions of years ago with a large body of water. Piles of soil accumulated together at the bottom of the water, and eventually it formed a mass of sedimentary rock. After this happened, underground, tectonic plates decided to do some work. Plates shifted and collided, causing the rock to thrust as high as 20,000 feet in the air! After millions of years, weathering and erosion, like wind and rain, has worn down the mountain top to 5,494 feet high. That is the exact height of the landform that we know of as Sugarland Mountain today.
Interesting Facts
Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in 1934
It is the largest national park east of the Rocky Mountains
The Smokies has 9-10 million visitors annually, making it the most visited US National Park
Clingmans Dome is 6,643 feet high, making it the highest point in the park
In March, the park holds an annual Music of the Mountains festival
- January is the Great Smoky Mountains’ busiest month—there are approximately 320,000 visitors in January