The Smoky Mountains are on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. Designated a national park in 1940, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States, as of September 2010.
The Cherokee Indians called the mountains the "Land of the Blue Smoke" because of the smoky fog that is always draped over the mountains. Today, we refer to the mountains as the Smoky Mountains.
The Smoky Mountains are very humid and wet and evaporation is the source of the foggy mist that surrounds the mountains. Yearly, an average of 85 inches of rain falls in the higher elevations of the Smoky Mountains and around 55 inches in the valleys.
The abundance of water allows the Smoky Mountains to support over 1,500 flowering plant species and 100 species of trees. According to the National Park Service, over 200 varieties of birds, 50 fish species, 43 types of amphibians, 39 reptile species and 66 different kinds of mammals reside in the mountains.
