Home>USA Natural Sites>Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located in United States is one of the most popular USA natural sites. It is visited by millions of travelers every year. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee is a part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The famous Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee includes the Appalachian Trail that passes through the center of the park.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was chartered by the United States Congress in the year 1934 and was officially dedicated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. The total area that the Park covers is about 814 square miles, making it one of the largest protected areas in the eastern United States.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has elevations that range from 876 feet at the mouth of the Abrams Creek to 6,643 feet at the summit of Clingmans Dome. The park contains a total of 16 mountains that reach higher than 6,000 feet from the ground. Plants and animals that are common in the country’s northeast have found suitable ecological niches in the park’s higher elevations. The southern species have find homes in the balmier lower reaches.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee normally has very high humidity and precipitation, averaging from 55 inches per year in the valleys to 85 inches per year on the peaks. The park is almost 95% forested, of which roughly a quarter is old growth with many trees that have originated because of the European settlement of the area.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park includes more than 200 species of birds, 66 species of mammals, 50 species of fish, 39 species of reptiles, and 43 species of amphibians. About 100 species of trees can be found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. There are 2 main visitors’ centers inside the park such as Sugarlands Visitors’ Center near the Gatlinburg entrance to the park and Oconaluftee Visitors’ Center near Cherokee, North Carolina.