Recommended hikes to enjoy fall color include Clingmans Dome Tower, Forney Ridge Trail to Andrews Bald, Road Prong, Thomas Divide, Mt. Cammerer Tower, and Charlies Bunion.  

Good drives to view the leaves are the Blue Ridge Parkway, Balsam Mountain Road, and Clingmans Dome Road.

The photo above shows Glen Brooks using a knifemaker's sander to profile one side of a walnut handle against the shape of a carbon steel blade.

Glen is a custom knifemaker who is handcrafting each individual knife in our limited quantity of commemorative Kephart Knives.

Click here to see how this piece of history is coming to life in the hands of a master craftsman. 

It's starting to look like fall in the highest elevations of the park. Click here to see Gary Wilson's newest film about fall colors in the Smokies.  

We are expecting fall color to peak in the highest elevations (above 5500 feet) in the Spruce Fir Forests and Northern Hardwoods within the next week or two.  

It will then race down the mountainsides to the lower elevations in subsequent weeks.

Meet Park Ranger Carey Jones at the Greenbrier Ranger Station no later than 9 a.m. on Saturday, October 27, and carpool to this increasingly popular hike. 

There are multiple waterfalls on this walk, so be prepared to do at least one serious creek crossing, depending on recent rainfall.  A hiking stick will be an asset on this one. 

Carey considers this a "Naturalist Ramble" and will address the flora, fauna, and natural history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park along the way. 

Bring a lunch (snacks), water, rain gear, sturdy hiking boots, and a camera. Return time will be approximately 1 p.m.  

Don't wait for a reminder e-mail, as the limit is 25 participants. The fee is $5 for GSMA Members in good standing, and $10 for non-members. Children 10 and under are free.  Call 865-436-7318, Ext. 222 or 254 to register.  

Researchers have found more kinds of lichens in GSMNP than in any other national park. More than 5,000 species of lichen and related fungi have been documented in North America, and over 800 of those have been found in our park!

On a hike up the Bullhead and Rainbow Falls trails to Mount Le Conte with Dr. James Lendemer and his fellow taxonomist, Dr. Erin Tripp of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, over 200 species were observed.

Lichens are composite organisms, usually composed of a green alga and a fungus that together can live in locations that many other forms of life cannot, such as the sun-baked exposed rock faces. The two parts of a lichen support each other, with the fungus providing protection for the algae and feeding off of the sugars the algae produces by photosynthesis. Lichens are named for the fungus, as often the same algal species is found in many different lichens.

Lichens are incredibly diverse. Some are easy to spot, like the larger bush-like or leaf-like species, but others are difficult to notice. Some species hang from trees like hair, some grow on tree trunks, some are specialists requiring rock with a particular chemistry or growing only on the outermost ends of dead branches, and others are found seemingly everywhere.

Many lichens cannot tolerate pollution, so areas with high ozone or acid deposition problems often lose most of their hair-like lichens and other sensitive species.