• Approximately 1,500 black bears live in the national park.

    Great Smoky Mountains

    National Park NC,TN

Special Events

Learn about the park at a special event such as the Festival of Christmas Past.

"Granny Franny" shares mountain herb lore at the Festival of Christmas Past.

NPS Photo

Each year the park offers a number of special programs to help you explore and learn about the park. Come tap your toes to old-time music at the Music of the Mountains festival, enjoy stories of bygone days at the Festival of Christmas Past, or marvel at the park's beautiful wildflowers at the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage.

Music of the Mountains

April 20, 2013
The Music of the Mountains festival was created to share the rich musical traditions of the Southern Appalachians with our park visitors. Enjoy traditional Appalachian music during this three day event held at Sugarlands Visitor Center and in Townsend, TN and Cosby, TN. Please refer to these dates on the Schedule of Events for additional information.

Wildflower Pilgrimage
April 23-27, 2013
The Smoky Mountains are a haven for spring wildflower enthusiasts. Join us for hikes, walks, lectures, and programs (both indoors and outdoors) on natural and cultural history. Search for salamanders, learn about aquatic insects, visit an air quality monitoring station, go on wildflower, fern, or tree identification walks...and more. For information about the pilgrimage, including schedule, and fees, please visit http://www.springwildflowerpilgrimage.org

 
Colorful quilts displayed at Cosby in the Park.

Colorful quilts hang on display at Cosby in the Park.

NPS Photo

Cosby in the Park
May 18, 2013
Celebrate Southern Appalachian culture with music, hikes, and demonstrations of blacksmithing, quilting, corn shuck dolls and crafts, old time toys, natural foods and medicinal plants, and other folk arts. Plus much more! Please refer to this date on the Schedule of Events for additional information

Women's Work Festival at the Mountain Farm Museum
June 15, 2013
A woman's work is never done! Join us to learn about the vital role women played in creating and maintaining a mountain home. Demonstrations of open hearth cooking, spinning or sewing, corn shuck doll making and more.

 
A musician plays a banjo at the Mountain Life Festival

Enjoy traditional Southern Appalachian music at the Mountain Life Festival.

NPS Photo

Mountain Life Festival at the Mountain Farm Museum
September 21, 2013
Celebrate the fall harvest as the Mountain Farm Museum comes alive with history. Demonstrators provide visitors with a glimpse into the past as they make soap, apple cider, sorghum molasses, hominy, music and more.

Festival of Christmas Past
December 14, 2013
Join us to celebrate Christmas in the mountains with old-time music, harp singing, storytelling and reminiscing, craft demonstrations such as weaving, spinning, quilting, basket making, historic toys and games, and children's activities.

Holiday Homecoming
December 21, 2013
Enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas celebration in the Smokies with traditional music at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center

Did You Know?

Flame azalea can be found growing on heath balds in the park.

The park’s high elevation heath balds are treeless expanses where dense thickets of shrubs such as mountain laurel, rhododendron, and sand myrtle grow. Known as “laurel slicks” and “hells” by early settlers, heath balds were most likely created by forest fires long ago.