Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the southern Appalachians, extend through North Carolina and Tennessee. The Smokies are not nearly as high as the mountain ranges you visited in the West, but they have an amazing diversity. More than 10,000 different species of plants and animals have been identified. They are also some of the oldest mountains in the world, formed 200 to 300 million years ago. There are more than 100 different species of native trees than in any other national park.