Synchronous Fireflies in the GSM

This trip to the Great Smoky Mountains has been planned for almost a year.  Despite living in East Tennessee for 22 years and visiting Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg countless times during those years, I never heard of the synchronous fireflies until last year, on accident.  I was looking at art on the internet, and saw a painting that I loved - when I clicked on it to get the background, I read that it was a painting of the synchronous fireflies at Elkmont by painter Jim Embry. (It won the Dogwood Arts Festival in 2004 and is on that website if you are interested.) I then began researching and realized that Brent & I just HAD to see these fireflies.



We got last-minute tickets (so lucky!) for June 6, the first night of the "show."  (Also Mama's birthday!) We drove all the way up from Tuscaloosa, checked in to our hotel and then met Mama & Daddy for supper at No Way Jose's (one of our two favorite restaurants in Gburg). After that, we headed out to the Sugarlands visitor center for parking.

(I demolished the chicken breast dinner, obviously.  This is the same thing I always get and it is wonderful!)

The weather actually wasn't looking too good at this point.  Here is the view from our hotel room (with an Instagram filter, of course, but you can still see all of the clouds)!  It was misting by the time we got to the Sugarlands parking lot. We unpacked our chairs and snacks and waited on the trolley to take us out to Elkmont campground, where the viewing area is.  The event was very, very organized. They only sell a certain number of parking reservations each day and do not allow cars to access Elkmont after 5 pm on the days of the firefly show.

We waited & waited as it got dark, afraid that they fireflies weren't going to come out & play.  But around 9:45-10, they got started! The show was different than we thought! We imagined that the synchronous fireflies would all flash on, flash off at the same time.  Instead, the woods would be dark, then one or two fireflies would start flashing, then they would all join in, randomly flashing.  It looked like Christmas lights! So pretty! Also, these fireflies blinked brighter and faster on-off than the fireflies I am used to.  Before it started, the woods were so loud with people talking, kids running around, etc.  After the fireflies started flashing, the woods got so quiet.  It really was amazing. And since we were actually sitting out in the woods, they were also flashing all around us.

I will absolutely go back anytime I have the chance!  We actually overheard a group behind us saying that they had been before and there had seen many more fireflies than what we saw.  Because we went on what was supposed to be the 1st night of the peak period, it is possible that the fireflies just hadn't peaked yet.  I would love to go back at a time where I could see more, but I'm not disappointed in what we saw at all.

It is so amazing that there are only two (known) places in the entire world where you can see synchronous fireflies - the GSM and in Southeast Asia.  That is just so unbelievable to me - that I have been so close to it my entire life and did not know!  It was definitely something to see!

Unfortunately, the fireflies are pretty much impossible to photograph or video (we tried).  There are some photos/videos on the internet, but none that I have seen really do it justice.  It is just something you have to see for yourself!

(I love this picture of Mama & Daddy taken in the dark and lightened with Instagram.  It looks like they are smoking cigarettes.  Happy Birthday, Mama.)