Going to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

In this 48-page book, Maynard presents children ages 8 to 12 a beautifully photographed and illustrated introduction to the history, geology, flora, and fauna of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the park with the highest visitation of any national park. Maynard captures the color and diversity of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a World Heritage and International Biosphere Research site that is home to more than 2,000 plant and animal species, including more than 1,600 flowering plants, more than 130 tree species, and 30 salamander species. Along with photographs by Ann and Rob Simpson and illustrations by Robert Rath, the book features the park's plants and creatures, large and small, from dainty lady's slipper orchids to mighty tulip poplars, from whiskered river otters to ambling black bears, from delicate fireflies to brightly colored salamanders????????????????????????including Jordan's red-cheeked salamanders that don't exist anywhere else in the world. Maynard also captures the rich area history, ranging from the early Cherokees to Spanish explorers who called the area "the Land of Angels" to the settlers who arrived in the 1700s and built log homes and water-powered mills. Readers will learn about early-day logging in Elkmont and the park's creation in the 1930s. Finally, lace up your hiking boots and hit the trail with one of the eight kid-friendly hikes that Maynard suggests to sites ranging from Laurel Falls to Le Conte Lodge. Dive into the story of the place the Cherokee Indians called Shaconage or "Blue, Like Smoke." Going Along to the Great Smoky Mountains is a wonderful guide to the a wonderful national park.

Charles W. Maynard is an ordained United Methodist minister who works with the Camp and Retreat Ministry of the Holston Conference in east Tennessee and in southwestern Virginia. He has an undergraduate degree from Emory and Henry College and a master of divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. The first executive director of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Charles has written 20 children's books as well as national park guidebooks, including Time Well Spent, a family hiking guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that he wrote with Hal Hubbs and David Morris. He and his wife, Janice, have two daughters, Caroline and Anna, and two granddaughters, Anastasia and Ainsley.