By KATY KOONTZ
Universal Press Syndicate

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK | Layered folds of dusky purple mountain peaks stretch to the horizon, pockets of blue haze softly settling among the ridges. Their outline was bolder and fiercer eons ago when these mountains were younger. But the sharp, angry rock has weathered over the past several hundred million years, yielding the more genial, gently rounded profile it has today.

The vista is signature Smoky Mountains. It’s a view familiar to most of the 9 million people who travel here each year to view abundant wildlife, enjoy spring wildflower displays and revel in majestic fall colors.

Straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina state line, the Smokies are within a day’s drive of one-third of the U.S. population, making this the most visited national park in the country. The park is about 750 miles from Kansas City.

Next year the laid-back mood around these parts will turn decidedly celebratory as the park marks its 75th anniversary (party hats are optional, but dress is definitely casual). Special programs and events being planned throughout 2009 will highlight the park’s flora and fauna as well as both pioneer and American Indian cultural heritage that makes the Smokies unique among national parks.

A-C Photo; Foothills of The Smokies.

Three major events are at the core of the celebration:

•On June 13 the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will give an evening outdoor concert at Cades Cove, closest to the Townsend, Tenn., park entrance. Although the concert will be free, reservations are required.

•The next day, June 14, the park headquarters, near the Gatlinburg, Tenn., entrance will hold an all-day open house highlighting park development, management activities, architecture and the contribution of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

•On the day of the anniversary, June 15, the big event is a groundbreaking ceremony for a new visitor center and cultural history museum at Oconaluftee, the park’s North Carolina entrance.

A fourth major event is planned for Sept. 2, the anniversary of the park’s dedication in 1940 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, six years after the park was established. Even when there’s not a party going on, there’s plenty to do and see in the Smokies.

With more than a half-million acres, the park offers 800 miles of nature walks and hiking trails, hundreds of miles of horse trails along with four commercial stables, 700 miles of fishable streams, 11 developed picnic areas, 10 campgrounds and nearly 400 miles of roadway.

Its three visitor centers (two in Tennessee and one in North Carolina) proffer exhibits, films and ranger programs.

Here’s a look at some of the park’s best bets for touring.

Cades Cove

One of the best places to see wildlife and a piece of the park’s pioneer history is Cades Cove. An 11-mile loop road winds through open fields and forestland where 685 people in 132 households lived in 1850.

Pioneer life was hard, and many families eventually moved on. By 1860 the population of Cades Cove had dwindled to 275.

When the national park was established in 1934, most residents sold their lots and moved elsewhere, although some tenacious families were permitted to lease their land back and live out the rest of their lives in their homes. The last resident was Kermit Caughron, a fifth-generation descendant of original settlers, who farmed here until his death in 1999.

Although Caughron’s house no longer stands, several remnants of pioneer history dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries remain. At several places along the loop drive, you can stop to visit some of these early structures, including three small churches (each with a graveyard filled with well-weathered headstones), numerous log homes, a working gristmill and even a few barns, smokehouses, corn cribs and other outbuildings.

In addition to the loop road, Cades Cove contains a picnic area, a 159-site campground and stables (open from mid-March through late November).

The wide-open fields are ideal for spotting white-tailed deer, which sometimes appear by the hundreds near dawn and at dusk, and often black bear, which generally live in the forested areas but amble into the fields from time to time. Wild turkey, fox, bobcats, coyotes, river otters and groundhogs also make their home in Cades Cove.

Newfound Gap/Clingmans Dome

Newfound Gap is the point where the main road across the park, appropriately named Newfound Gap Road, crosses the Tennessee-North Carolina state line. It’s the lowest drivable pass through the park, at an elevation of 5,046 feet. Even so, at almost a mile high, the view is grand — and the temperature can be 10 degrees cooler than at lower elevations in the park.

This is the spot where, in 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech in front of 10,000 people to formally dedicate the park. Rockefeller Memorial, the grand stone patio where he spoke, was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and still provides a nice vantage point, although the views over the mountains from the edge of the parking lot are equally as breathtaking.

The platform was named for John Rockefeller Jr., who honored his mother when he donated the final $5 million needed to acquire land for the park. This was more of a headache than most people realize because, unlike the national parks in the West that were carved from land already owned by the government, Great Smoky Mountains National Park was created from a patchwork of more than 6,000 parcels of privately held land.

A-C Photo; Newfound Gap at The Smoky Mountains, N.P, TN.

The Appalachian Trail, which winds 2,150 miles from Georgia to Maine, passes right in front of the memorial, following the state line for the better part of 70 miles. Hikers often strike off in either direction just for the fun of hiking part of this famous footpath.

If you head west on the Appalachian Trail from here, you’ll reach the highest point on the trail, Clingmans Dome, in seven miles. But you don’t have to hike to get there. Clingmans Dome Road, a spur road starting just south of the Newfound Gap parking lot, will take you within a half mile of the peak, except in winter, when the road is closed.

To get the rest of the way, you can walk a fairly steep paved path that ends in a spiral walkway to an observation tower with 360-degree views. It’s well worth the effort, because at 6,643 feet in elevation, Clingmans Dome is the highest peak in the Smokies — as well as the third-highest peak east of the Mississippi River. If the air is clear, you can see as far as 100 miles, although air pollution often shortens this distance considerably. Sunset can be particularly beautiful here.

Cataloochee

Ironically, this isolated valley on the North Carolina side of the park receives fewer visitors than the more popular Cades Cove, but in its heyday about the turn of the 20th century, it was a much larger and more prosperous settlement. Records from 1910 show that 1,251 people lived here. Today, only a few of their 200 buildings are left.

Along a 2 1/2 -mile stretch of road, you can view five historic buildings that are part of a designated auto tour.

The drive begins at the Palmer House, which was built as a log cabin in 1860. Siding was added about 1902, giving the house a decidedly more modern appearance. Today the building houses exhibits on life in the Cataloochee Valley about that time.

Driving west, you’ll next come upon the Will Messner Barn, moved here from neighboring Little Cataloochee Valley, and then Palmer Chapel, a Methodist church built in 1903 and remodeled in 1929. Circuit-riding preachers came just once a month, but Sunday school was held every week.

The Beech Grove School, built in 1901 to replace an older log building, is next. Here the valley’s children learned to read and write from November through January — and sometimes through March, if money was available.

The 1903 Caldwell house, a white clapboard house with pretty sky-blue trim, is the last house on the drive. Be sure to go upstairs and read the catalog pages peeling off the walls and ceiling. You’re likely to come upon an advertisement for boys’ rubber high-cut boots or perhaps black satin dresses (only $9.98).

Cataloochee is also famous for its resident elk herd, thanks to a program begun in 2001 to reintroduce this majestic animal to the Smokies. The elk tend to congregate in open fields next to the road in early morning and just before sunset.

No matter where you decide to explore, be sure to take note of the great variety of plants and animal life you’re bound to encounter. The Smoky Mountains form the most biologically diverse national park in the continental United States. An estimated 100,000 species of plants and animals live here.

But whether you come for the critters or visit for the vistas, the Smoky Mountains are more than willing to share their splendor.

A-C Photo; Clingmans Dome