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Published: October 1st 2010
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As Gatlinburg is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, we get to sample a little of the park to get a glimpse into why its the most visited National Park in the States.
We don't have our own transport, but our friends Jen and John have their car here and Tessa and I get to take a few trips into the park with John while Keith and Jen are at the conference. Its a beautiful area, but unfortunately some of the huge trees there, the Eastern hemlocks, are being attacked by a non-native insect called the woolly adelgid. In the grand views the dead trees stand out across the park. John is into photography too, so our walks with him are at photographers pace, allowing Tessa time to look around for wildlife and photo opportunities. Its hot in Gatlinburg, but cooler as we get higher into the forest, so as well as getting some exercise its a welcome escape from the heat.
The park has thousands of trails, including part of the famous 3500km long Appalachian Trail, and historic sites and buildings. It also has some of the greatest diversity in salamanders in the US, so there are
Spot the amphibian
A cute wee salamander on a log lots of different species there. John, Jen and Bob show us how to find salamanders under rocks or logs and we try to identify the species we find. Salamanders are amphibians, so they're quite closely related to frogs (they're my cousins), and they have moist skin so they like damp or wet locations. Some of them breath through gills, others have lungs and some breath through their skin. If our hands are clean and free of creams we can hold them briefly but we have to be very careful. They're pretty special creatures, if they are attacked their tail may drop off and wriggle around while the salamander runs away, and then they grow another tail. They can even grow new legs if they lose them, which is pretty amazing.
At the end of the conference we head into the park with colleagues Adam and Andy. Tessa and I have been able to get into the park during the week, but this is Keith's first chance to get out there. Our walk involves much more salamander searching than walking, and we're rewarded by finding lots in all sorts of places, including some quite big ones and different species. Its
Keith inspects a salamander
The biologist in his element quite exciting choosing a rock in the river and carefully lifting it to find a wee salamander under there! Sometimes they're just sitting on a rock or log, but you have to be looking pretty hard as they're well camouflaged.
As we return from our walk a woman warns us to be careful - there is a wild bear and her cub on the other side of the carpark. Excited, we rush over there, only to find we've just missed them. Only crushed vegetation to be seen in a trail heading away from the carpark, which we follow for a while but then lose the trail. As we drive away down the one way road, though, cars are backed up ahead of us. Its our first 'bear jam'! Somewhere ahead someone has probably caught a glimpse of the bears and leapt out of their car to take a look. Its the closest we have come to spotting bears in the wild, and its great to know they are out there.
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