Great Smoky Mountains National Park hosts synchronous firefly viewing at Elkmont Nature Trail. Access is through a lottery system to limit the crowd at the site. I’ve never been lucky enough to win a lottery, despite applying several years. This or any other kind of lottery. So, I chose to view the fireflies from a different location. Spent two nights backpacking in the wilderness and ended up in desolation. On the last night, I took a stroll on the Cades cove loop road just so I can capture the Milky Way. Guess what. Fireflies! They were here the whole time and I searched the whole forest. Although the fireflies weren't synchronous, they were large in numbers. While the concentration of synchronous fireflies is higher near Elkmont, the view from Cades Cove was still spectacular, as I could capture the fireflies with the Milky Way glimmering above. I was a happy camper!
