Great Smokey Mountain National Park

People come to Clingmans Dome to experience the 360-degree view but how does the view today compare to centuries ago? We really don't know, but we do know that haze, largely caused by air pollution, can greatly diminish your view.

Records show that during the last half of the 20th century the average distance it is possible to see decreased by about 40 percent in winter and 80 percent in summer.

For details about how air pollution impacts the Smokies-and about how you can help protect future air quality-ask at a visitor center.

On a typical hazy day (left), views can be disappointing. Distance features, like Pigeon Forge, are completely lost from view.

Air pollution in the Smoky Mountains (map, right) comes mostly from the northwest and southwest, and sometimes from the east. Pollutants arrive from both local and distant sources. Weather patterns dictate how sources change over time.

(captions)

Blanket Mountain
Distance: 7.7mi/12.4km

Cove Mountain
Distance: 11mi/18km

Bluff Mountain
Distance: 20mi/32km

Pigeon Forge
Distance: 15mi/24km

Gatlinburg
Distance: 10.5mi/17km
Elevation: 1289ft/393m

Balsam Point
Distance: 6.5mi/10.4km

High Top
(Highest point on Mt. Le Conte)
Distance:
6.9mi/11.1km
Elevation: 6593ft/2010m

Newfound Gap
Distance: 5.5mi/8.8km
Elevation: 5046ft/1538m

Mount Guyot
Distance: 17mi/27km
Elevation: 6621ft/2018m

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Show me all markers in:  Bryson City, NC  |  28713  |  North Carolina  |  United States of America

Western View
Eastern View
Southern View
The Top of the Smokies
And It Became Land
Mountains: Refuge and Healing
Indian Gap Road Historical
Spared the Saw Historical
Lifeblood of the Mountains
Land of Blue Smoke

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