Celebrating 75 Years of the Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is celebrating its 75th anniversary. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presided over the opening ceremony at Newfound Gap on Sept. 2, 1934, so earlier this week, there was a rededication ceremony at the same spot. Only 2,000 people were able to attend, but there was live coverage to watch online. Of course Dolly Parton was there and sang a song she'd written about the mountains, where she grew up.

The Knoxville News Sentinel asked readers to share their favorite memories of the park, and I submitted my thoughts below. (The edited version that is linked above has some minor errors in it that must have happened when they transferred the text from my e-mail to their layout, so my original version is below).

"I've only lived in Knoxville for about three years, but my family has vacationed in the Great Smoky Mountains every year since I was 18 months old. I'm now 32. We usually made the trip during October to see the fall leaves and sometimes also visited during June.

One fall it was rather cold and there was snow and ice on Newfound Gap Road. The road was open, and there wasn't a lot of snow, but since we are from Florida, it was quite exciting. My dad wanted a photo of me near the snow, so we pulled off and got out of the car to snap a shot. My mom was afraid I was going to slide off the mountain, but I obviously didn't.

My husband and I moved to Knoxville in July 2006 so I could enter a Ph.D. program in communication and information at UT. His parents visited for his birthday in early December. It had snowed the night before, and late on a Friday afternoon, they reopened Newfound Gap Road, and we were able to drive a ways and take some gorgeous photographs and play in the snow. It was the first time I had seen that much snow in the U.S. I'm attaching a few photos I took.

I had only seen the Smoky Mountains during the fall and summer seasons, so the first glance at winter is one I'll always remember. We went at the perfect time too since I'm sure it started melting the next day."

Here are some of the gorgeous photos I took during that December visit.






Ironically, I don't have any recent photos of the Smokies during the summer. We usually don't visit as much since it's hot and crowded. I have some previous posts though about visiting Cades Cove and Clingman's Dome during the fall. We've also traveled to the mountains during the spring, and there was even snow up near Newfound Gap.

It's a great place to visit, and I'm thankful we've lived close enough to see the changing seasons of the Great Smoky Mountains.