Great Smoky Mountains National Park creates space for wildness, adventure, and imagination.
When you think of the Smoky Mountains, think of refuge. The Smokies are a refuge for dreams of freedom, of unimpeded rambling, adventure, and of the faraway that was contained within the nearby, a refuge for magic, for wildness, for the imagination.
Wilderness is like that. It seems to have more space and time within it, which means a different experience of being on Earth can be had. It opens up alternate realities.
A sanctuary for an against-the-grain narrative, some other story that doesn’t emphasize linear “progress” but rather circular time, continually transforming and transformative. The richness of quiet and rotting logs. Refuge for a different value system.
The Smokies also provide refuge for the ancient trees — the park contains the largest stand of old-growths east of the Mississippi and the largest block of virgin red spruce on earth.
The mountains are home to the world’s greatest variety of salamanders, more than 1,500 species of flowering plants, more than 50 fern species, around 500 species of bryophytes, mosses, and liverworts (nearly 200 of them considered rare) and as many tree species as are found on the entire European continent.
They house the densest black bear population in the East. Almost 3,000 miles of streams contain a varied abundance of fish and invertebrate aquatic life. Refuge for all these.
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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