1. They crossed the Great Smoky Mountains in midwinter.

2. Clouds obscure a valley in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

3. Located halfway between the Atlantic coast and the Great Smoky Mountains, Durham, N. C. , is called the "City of Medicine" because of its expansive healthcare industry.

4. Waves of shadowed ridges roll toward sunset in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

5. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the southeastern United States and the Grand Canyon in the Southwest are two of the most popular sites in this category.

6. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, an invasive insect—the balsam woolly adelgid—has killed millions of Fraser firs, as seen here on Clingmans Dome.

7. The Great Smoky Mountains, created in 1934 in parts of North Carolina and Tennessee, comprise one of the largest protected land areas in the eastern United States.

8. The nation's busiest park, Great Smoky Mountains draws more than nine million visitors a year, twice the number of any other national park.

9. The campus and its signature "Hill" lure students with green space, nearby lakes, and vistas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

10. In the East, canopy heights generally decrease along a gradient from the Southern Appalachians (including the forests of the Great Smoky Mountains) to Maine (far northeast corner of the country).

11. An amazing diversity of trees — some 100 native species — make fall in the Great Smoky Mountains uniquely spectacular.

12. Tennessee's Abrams Creek, which winds for just 25 miles, mostly through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, used to hold nearly70 species of native fish.