Knoxville: the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains

Host of an Olympic exposition on energy in 1982, Knoxville remains above all the most convenient departure point for the most-visited national park in the United States.

The centre is explored on foot; reaching the Great Smoky Mountains requires a car.

The Sunsphere, a gilded tower built for the 1982 World's Fair, remains the city's symbol visible from most of downtown.

Just steps away, Market Square, a historic pedestrian plaza, hosts weekly markets and live music venues practically every evening of the year.

In the afternoon, one should venture to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the United States' most visited park, where the blue haze that gives the mountains their name envelops the peaks even on clear days.

Along the park's trails, waterfalls and old-growth forests host one of the richest biodiversities in all of eastern North America.

The blue haze of the Great Smoky Mountains is not pollution but water vapor and natural compounds released by dense vegetation—a phenomenon that gives the park its name.

Unlike many other American national parks, entry to the Great Smoky Mountains remains free, a condition imposed since the park's founding in the 1930s.