Author Archives: admin

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Sunrise in the Smokies

July 25, 2008 – 7:54 am

Photo by Ann Froschauer.

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GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Ophidiophobia?

July 23, 2008 – 10:18 am

Oh what?
Ophidiophobia (Oh-fid-eeo-fobia): fear of snakes…
Luckily, I’m not phobic, and neither are the people I was with when we startled this impressively large and healthy rattlesnake.
Click the photo below to see the video and hear some serious rattling!

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GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
There’s a BEAR in my office!

July 22, 2008 – 9:25 am

Thanks to the bravery of 75th Anniversary Coordinator, Ann Froschauer, we have these wonderful photos of the even braver wildlife ranger, Dan Nolfi, examining a bear he’d captured after the bear become overly interested in eating human food.
The poor girl weighed just 70 pounds and had a low body fat (not as healthy for a [...]

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GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Everywhere, Everywhere: Rhododendron Blossoms

July 20, 2008 – 9:08 am

It seems like I can’t drive, hike, or look out a window without someone (often me, talking to myself) making a comment about how incredible the rhododendron flowers are this year. I’ve lived in the Smokies for fourteen years and I’ve NEVER seen them this good.
The bloom has already peaked and is fading gradually [...]

Posted in Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Minute in the Mountains: Scenery & Music, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Unsuccessful Bear Trapping and Other News

July 11, 2008 – 9:30 am

Smoky Mountain black bears are pretty active in July, and the national park’s really awesome wildlife management team has been kind enough to let me tag along with them: they even invited me to meet them at the trailhead (undisclosed trail) at 5:30 a.m. this morning to go check a bear trap, which they’d set [...]

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GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Tub Mills, Dog-Trots, and Granny Holes

July 8, 2008 – 9:12 am

Whenever I visit Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, I think of my granddaddy: as a park naturalist in the Smokies back in the 1950s, he was in charge of setting up the motor nature trail and directed the preservation of old homesites in Cades Cove and Oconaluftee, too.
To take a quick, car-free tour of the [...]

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GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Free Audio Tours of the Park via Hwy. 441

July 8, 2008 – 9:02 am

Below are links to free audio tours you can listen to when you’re driving through the park on Highway 441.
If you’re traveling through the park from Tennessee to North Carolina–

The Sugarlands to Newfound Gap
Newfound Gap to Oconaluftee

Or if you’re traveling through the park from North Carolina to Tennessee–

Oconaluftee to Newfound Gap
Newfound Gap to The [...]

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GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Tiny Tourist

July 8, 2008 – 8:21 am

75th Anniversary Coordinator, Ann Froschauer (the indomitable), took these photos of her hike to Mt. Le Conte. Don’t you just love the brave little mouse and the keyhole view through a rhododendron tunnel to the mountains in the distance?

Posted in Befuddled Botanist - Flora - Plants, Bunglesome Biologist - Fauna - Critters, Fear, Loathing & Hiking | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)