Arrowmont: Synchronous Fireflies

(photo from here)
The last night I was in Gatlinburg, some friends took me to see the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my whole life. (Thank you Jason!)

There is a certain species of firefly, commonly known as the Synchronous Firefly, that exists only two places in the entire world, East Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and Southeast Asia. During the breeding season in June, groups of hundreds of fireflies fly above the ground for about two hours each evening looking for mates. This only happens about one week a year for just a couple of hours each night, and I just happened to be there the right week! As they fly, they blink in unison. It is amazing. We drove out to Cades Cove, and waited for dark in a grassy clearing. Slowly, as dusk turned to night, the fireflies came out and lit up the hills in waves of greenish glowing light. Everyone should put this on their list of things to see. It was magical. We just stood there in the dark, and then slowly the fireflies began to glow, everyone went silent, we were all captivated by the beauty of it all. They really light up in unison, in a short wave, and then before you know it, its dark again. We just watched as the fireflies repeated their glowing pattern. The forest and the mountains were enough to take my breath away, but when the fireflies came out...well there is just no words. I wish I could have captured it for you to see. It was beautiful.