Tennessee

Tennessee offers mountain hiking and waterfalls in the Smokies (over 13 million visitors a year, the most of any national park), whitewater on the Ocoee (the 1996 Olympic course) and Pigeon rivers, caving in the karst country, and paddling. The Cumberland Plateau's gorges — Fall Creek Falls, the Obed — and 60-plus state parks round it out.

Fall (October) brings spectacular Smoky Mountain color; spring delivers wildflowers, waterfalls, and the synchronous fireflies. Summer is humid but green; winters are mild with occasional mountain snow.

Black bears (about two per square mile in the Smokies, among the densest in the East), elk reintroduced to the mountains, white-tailed deer, and the world's greatest diversity of salamanders inhabit Tennessee, with abundant caves harboring unique blind and endemic life.

The biodiverse Smokies — a temperate rainforest with the most documented species of any U.S. park — give way to Cumberland Plateau forest, extensive karst caves, and western bottomland and river ecosystems.

The ancient Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains rise in the east (6,643-ft Clingmans Dome is the state high point), descending across the Cumberland Plateau — with its gorges, waterfalls, and roughly 10,000 caves — to the Nashville Basin and the flat Mississippi floodplain in the west.

The Cherokee homeland centered on the eastern mountains before removal on the Trail of Tears, which began here in 1838. The 16th state (1796), Tennessee is also a birthplace of American music — blues in Memphis, country in Nashville.

Appalachian mountain heritage, a deep whitewater scene on the Ocoee and Pigeon, and the music culture of Nashville and Memphis define the outdoors, alongside the Eastern Band of Cherokee just across the North Carolina line.

Protecting the biodiverse Smokies from air pollution and invasive pests, conserving the Cumberland Plateau's gorges and caves, and managing the nation's most-visited park's crowds are key concerns.

Nashville, Knoxville (for the Smokies), Memphis, and Chattanooga have airports. The Smokies are reached via Gatlinburg; a vehicle is essential statewide.

Black bears (store food, never approach), slick waterfalls and rivers (drownings and falls occur — stay off waterfall tops), mountain weather, and ticks are the main concerns.

Tennessee State Parks charge no general entrance fee, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency administers licenses; Great Smoky Mountains requires a Park It Forward parking tag (no entrance fee).

Store food properly in bear country, and follow cave-access and whitewater-outfitter rules.

Beat Smokies crowds by visiting Cades Cove and popular trails at dawn (buy the parking tag), chase Cumberland Plateau waterfalls, raft the Ocoee, and see the Smokies in October for peak color.

Tennessee borders eight states — Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri — linking the Smokies, the Cumberland Plateau, and the Mississippi.