Agile Trekker: Elkmont Loop and Synchronous Fireflies

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
6/10/2024	6.4 miles	2 hours 52 minutes	831'	2.2 mph	415.2 miles

Parking:

Flat Rock Parking Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway milepost 308.3

Map:

Gai GPS app

Directions:

From the campground, take a shortcut to the road near campsite F09. Turn right onto Little River Road to the Little River Trail. Pass Huskey Branch Falls. Take a sharp right onto Cucumber Gap Trail. Turn right onto Jakes Creek Trail and once at road, walk through buildings of Daisy Town. Turn left onto Little River Road and walk back to the campground (turn left onto a path, immediately after the bridge).

After not winning the synchronous firefly lottery for the last 2 years, this year I tried to get a campsite for Elkmont to see the fireflies. Bingo! This has been a bucket list item even back when I lived in NY. I heard about the synchronous fireflies from the Trust the Trail podcast - the hosts used to lead trips to the Smokies to see them. Synchronous fireflies only exist in a few places in the world: Synchronous Fireflies - Firefly.org

Now was my chance! I had to reserve the campsite the minute the reservation system opened for my dates, but I was able to get them. I actually reserved 2 nights, in 2 different campsites. The first night was stormy so I stayed home. Phyllis joined me for the second night. We arrived at 1pm and checked in before the firefly rush. After setting up our tents, we did a fun loop hike. The Little River Trail is a wide gravel trail next to Little River. It's flat and easy. The highlight of the trail is Huskey Branch Falls. Cucumber Gap Trail was a proper dirt trail and had a steady uphill then downhill - it was much more scenic. After turning onto Jake's Creek Trail, we saw several stone building ruins. At the end of the trail, we noticed several buildings. We decided to walk by and check them out. They are part of Daisy Town. We found the cabins very cute. You can walk through them. They reminded us of the movie Dirty Dancing. Daisy Town: The Birth of Tourism in the Smokies (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

After our hike, we hung out until around 8pm, and then decided to follow everyone else who seemed to be walking in the same direction to see the fireflies. We had heard you can see them at the campground, but I think the viewing was better where we went. Many people went towards the Little River Trail. We headed to the right of it onto Jakes Creek Road B. We parked our chairs and waited. For quite a while, we saw just a few fireflies. It was not anything special. Then all of a sudden, the show began! There would be a period of no blinking - maybe 8 seconds. Then a period with hundreds blinking - again maybe 8 seconds. This went on and on. It looked like a rock concert light show. During those 8 seconds of blinking, they aren't blinking in unison. But they synchronized in that they would all blink for a while, and then all not blink for a while. It was very unique! We also saw a few blue ghost fireflies: Firefly Flash Patterns - Great Smoky Mountains National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

The number of people wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be, but we did have around 20 people sitting near us. The later it got, the quieter everyone got. We did get some annoying people that would light their way with white headlamps or their iphone flashlight. The park requires you to use a red light to walk in the dark - its less disturbing for the fireflies and it's also less disturbing for your night vision. It seemed like prime viewing time was around 10pm. I now think that camping is a better idea than the lottery anyways, because it's a long drive home late at night if you just go for the evening.

Phyllis did well camping - her first time in a very long time. There was lots of giggling in the evening, and she's willing to do it again :)