Great Smoky Mountains

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Hat Inspiration

From Luftee Overlook the first rays of sunlight reach over the horizon casting a soft blue glow across the ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains while the valleys below still hold the last traces of mist with distant peaks rising through it, shifting from gray to blue as the sun climbs.

In the foreground the trees turn with the season putting on their display of warm tones of gold, orange, and red that stand out against the cool mountain air. The scene captures the subtle balance of light and shadow that defines the Smokies at daybreak.

This view is one of the park’s most recognizable, a place where visitors pause to see the mountains stretch endlessly toward the horizon. The changing atmosphere creates a sense of depth that moves with the light, revealing new details each minute. Fall brings its own distinct palette, blending the crisp colors of the forest with the soft hues of dawn.

Design Process

Creating these National Park hats with their panoramic embroidery is a detailed process going beyond simply buying and reselling bulk designs. There are no logos and no branding on any of our hats, just National Parks, from a small company in Seattle, Washington.

The first step is having gone to every park we feature, and we have! We try to find that specific viewpoint in the park to show off and what we need to do to capture the feeling of being there. Sometimes we ad-lib a bit of the design to include other elements to capture the feeling of the park as a whole, but we try hard to highlight an actual place in the park you can visit.

Then we get to designing! Embroidery is naturally limited in colors and we use a 15 color (the most you'll find) edgeless embroidery process which takes upwards of 90 minutes and over 60,000 stitches per hat, but allows us to show off every detail from that epic mountain range to the colorful flowers in your favorite park.

Finally the design get digitized for embroidery, a sample is made for any final tweaks, and we go to production getting these fantastic hats on your heads.

And 100% of our profits are donated right back to our National Parks .

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee and encompasses over 522,000 acres of protected land along the crest of the Great Smoky Mountains. Authorizing the park in 1934 was made possible by Congress after years of fundraising and land acquisition through donations from private citizens and matching funds from the Rockefeller Foundation. Unlike most national parks in the western United States, the Smokies were established on land that had been extensively settled and logged, requiring the purchase of thousands of individual tracts and the relocation of entire communities.

Today the park preserves one of the largest blocks of deciduous forest in eastern North America and protects the cultural heritage of the people who once called these mountains home.

Receiving more than 13 million visitors annually the Smokies is the most visited national park in the United States. The park's accessibility contributes significantly to its popularity as it lies within a day's drive of major population centers in the Southeast and is crossed by a single main road connecting Gatlinburg, Tennessee with Cherokee, North Carolina. Newfound Gap Road provides access to many overlooks, trailheads and historic sites while scenic side roads like Cades Cove Loop and Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail allow visitors to experience different areas of the park.

Over 800 miles of trails provide access to the park's backcountry including 71 miles of the Appalachian Trail which follows the state line ridge, ranging from short accessible walks to historic buildings and waterfalls to multi day backpacking routes through remote wilderness areas. Camping is available at ten developed campgrounds that require advance reservations, while backcountry camping is permitted at designated sites and shelters with a free permit. The park also maintains over 90 historic structures including log cabins, barns, churches and grist mills that interpret the lives of mountain families and communities prior to the park's establishment.

The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that frequently envelops the mountains when trees release water vapor and volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere. This mist appears blue when viewed from a distance due to the way light scatters through the moist air and gives the mountains their characteristic appearance. The Cherokee people who inhabited this region for thousands of years called the mountains "Shaconage" or "place of blue smoke" in recognition of this phenomenon.

Most Popular Hikes

Scenic Drives

Cades Cove Loop Road follows an 11 mile one way route through a broad valley surrounded by mountains where visitors can see historic buildings, a working grist mill and abundant wildlife. White tailed deer frequently graze in the open fields while black bears may be spotted along the forest edges particularly during early morning and evening hours. The route includes parking areas at several historic structures including three churches, a working cable mill, and numerous log cabins and barns that interpret 19th century mountain settlement.

Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail provides a six mile one way drive through old growth forest accessed from Gatlinburg's Historic Nature Trail Road and follows Roaring Fork creek past several preserved log cabins and historic buildings including the Alfred Reagan Place and the Ephraim Bales Place, both of which feature period farm structures and demonstrate early Appalachian living conditions. Rainbow Falls Trailhead and Grotto Falls Trailhead provide access to two of the park's most popular waterfall hikes directly from the motor trail.

Newfound Gap Road runs approximately 30 miles from Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg over the mountains to Cherokee, North Carolina and serves as the primary route through the heart of the park. The road climbs from 1,500 feet elevation to 5,046 feet at Newfound Gap before descending into the Oconaluftee Valley providing access to numerous overlooks, picnic areas and trailheads along its length. Major points of interest include the Chimneys Picnic Area, Morton Overlook for sunrise views, the Newfound Gap overlook at the state line, and the turnoff to Clingmans Dome Road which leads seven miles to the highest point in the park.

Historic Sites

More than 90 historic buildings remain in the park with Cades Cove featuring the greatest variety of churches, mills, barns and cabins dating back to the early 1800s. The preserved structures include three churches that served different denominations within the same community, demonstrating the important role of religion in mountain life. The Cable Mill area features a working grist mill that operates seasonally along with a collection of outbuildings that illustrate the self sufficient nature of Appalachian farmsteads.

Mountain Farm Museum at Oconaluftee displays structures from the late 1800s including a barn, spring house, apple house and working blacksmith shop. The buildings were relocated from various locations throughout the park and assembled to create a representative farmstead that interprets daily life for mountain families before the park's establishment. Seasonal demonstrations of traditional crafts and farming practices help visitors understand the skills and labor required to maintain these homesteads in isolated mountain communities.

Historic structures also appear along hiking trails and motor nature trails throughout the park, with notable concentrations along Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and in the Cataloochee Valley. These sites include log cabins, barns, cantilever barns unique to the region, and small cemeteries that mark former community centers. The National Park Service maintains these structures to prevent further deterioration while preserving their historic character, though interiors are typically not furnished to reduce maintenance needs and security concerns.

Wildlife & Nature

The park supports a population almost 2,000 black bears with almost two bears per square mile, making it one of the largest protected bear populations in the eastern United States. Most active during early morning and evening hours, bears may be encountered anywhere in the park though Cades Cove is a particularly common viewing location due to its open fields and forest edges.

Elk were successfully reintroduced to the park beginning in 2001 after being entirely killed off in the region in the late 1800s, with the current population estimated at around 200 individuals. The reintroduction fulfilled the National Park Service mission to restore native species to their historic ranges where suitable habitat remains. Cataloochee Valley and areas near Cherokee provide the most reliable elk viewing opportunities, particularly during autumn when males bugle to attract mates and establish dominance.

The park hosts 19 species of fireflies including the synchronous firefly that creates coordinated light displays during a brief period in late May and early June. The park also contains 31 species of salamanders, more than any other location in North America earning it the designation as the Salamander Capital of the World. Over 240 species of birds have been documented in the park along with 66 species of mammals and 67 species of native fish, reflecting the exceptional biodiversity supported by varied elevations, abundant rainfall and protected forest habitats.

Frequently Asked Questions