I visited there in spring, I enjoyed Cade's Cove a museum village circling old farm fields that you drive through, the
trilliums were many varieties, there large swaths of phalacia
and rock ledges were covered in silene virginica. What I didn't
know was that Gatlinburg is the honeymoon spot for the south,
with at least 13 marriage chapels, Dollywood, and 5000 hotel
rooms! The smokies are magnificant as the sky line drive in
the blue ridge was closed by winter storm debree we traveled
back to NY through Ashland and stopped at the Biltmore estate.

There is a Spring Wildflower program offered by Elderhostle, with it's home base being Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, NC. They do a lot of hicking in the hills that are covered with trilliums and so many others that I can't even begin to mention. The program also included a visit to the Botanical gardens in Asheville. If you are 55 years old, give it a try.

For the first time, I've seen Pink Lady Slipper growing in the wild and how to distinguish its soft downy leaf from very similar in appearance but not texture newly emerging False Hellebore foliage.

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Now you can see.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wildflower Walk