Relearning Mountains

I thought I had a handle on what to expect. The Cascades, the Olympics, the Rockies, Adirondacks, and White Mountains. I’d seen, hiked, and even lived right by all of these mountain ranges and experienced their river-cut valleys and alpine ridges, and thought I knew what forested mountains were like in the United States.

And then I experienced the Smokies.

Previously, I thought mountains were supposed to be stunning. Always just a little fearful behind their beauty, with their sheer sides and rough edges, young in the view of geologic time. But the avalanches I heard rumbling down peaks in the Cascades, the wind racing unhindered from across the ocean into the ridges of the Cascades, the clatter of distant rock fall thousands of feet above me in the sun-washed Rockies, and the pines creaking at the summits of the White Mountains were teenage angst, I realized. All young, energetic show compared to the gentle, ancient curves of the Smokies, perfumed with more flowers than I’d ever seen in one wild place before, and mesmerizing with the constant sound of running water. If the other mountain ranges are teenagers, then the Smokies is a mother. Rounded and full from giving life for generations upon generations, bones full of more knowledge of what was than we’ll ever understand.

Yes, the Smokies have beautiful views and rugged rock formations, too. But the sheer lushness of this mountain range, the unexpected jungle of diving line between eastern and middle America, is what has caught my attention most since moving to within an hour of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Instead of aiming to climb x-thousand feet in a hike, I now find myself sitting down to see just how much life is bursting from a few square feet, every inch maxed out by moss, buds, ferns, bugs, amphibians, tiny hunting mammals, territorial marks from big mammals, and even pollen thick in the air.

I don’t know how long my husband and I will live here by the Smokies. But I do know that I won’t run out of inspiration for art, and that I can’t wait to see what I find next time we go hiking.

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Treasures of The Smokies print and Salamander Linocut Tinyprint are available now to Beastie and Bone Patrons as part of their early access perk, and to all in the next shop update on June 29th, 2024.