In The Smokey Mountains, NC

We have visited yesterday Boone in NC and on the way back to Asheville, NC we had some rain for minutes. Later, the sun came back and "smog" started to come up everywhere in the hills, like the hills are on fire. That was again a beautiful show of mother nature - that's where the hills of North Carolina get the name from : Smokey Mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains
are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains or the Smokey Mountains, and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Great Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934, and with over 9 million visits per year, it is the most-visited national park in the United States.

The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance. This fog, which is most common in the morning and after rainfall, is the result of warm humid air from the Gulf of Mexico cooling rapidly in the higher elevations of Southern Appalachia.

The Great Smokies are part of an International Biosphere Reserve. The range is home to an estimated 187,000 acres (760 km²) of old growth forest, constituting the largest such stand east of the Mississippi River. The cove hardwood forests in the range's lower elevations are among the most diverse ecosystems in North America, and the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest that coats the range's upper elevations is the largest of its kind. The Great Smokies are also home to the densest black bear population in the Eastern United States and the most diverse salamander population outside of the tropics.

Pretty light on the side of the road

Hi my friends,

All your kind comments make always my day, thanks for that! :)

The rain came back yesterday evening and also in the night, and this morning it was raining too - too boring! We decided to stay here in the Asheville area for another day and to relax. Traveling is a hard job, you know that too.... right? ...LOL...

Tomorrow we will be heading West in NC... I heard there is somewhere a Casino and you can win there easy a lot of money...LOL... we will try it again :) I'll let you know if we won... LOL... :)

See you there!
Susanne