Fishing is another popular Smokies recreation, as visitors seek more than 70 species of fish including rainbow trout and native brook trout, that populate our rivers and streams. A fishing license is required for ages 13 to 65. For details call the Park Service at 436-5615, or ask the fishing shops in the yellow pages. The Smokies' tumbling river waters provide other recreation fun as well. Tubing, kayaking, canoeing and white water rafting are available with your own equipment or through several area outfitters and expeditions.
Extreme caution is advised, as many rapids are dangerous.
Check with the Visitors Center, or check the yellow pages for an experienced expedition company to take you or guide your adventure. Formed more than 200 million years ago, and dedicated as a National Park in 1934, the Great Smoky Mountains were chosen as an International Biosphere Reserve in1976. Truly a national treasure, the 520,000 acre Park is the most visited of all the U.S. National Parks. It has thousands of species of animals, birds, flowers, plants, trees, and insects not found anywhere else, and the Park personnel are working continually to reintroduce native endangered species back into the land. The Peregrine falcon and river otter have been brought back successfully, and the red wolf, last seen in 1905, was put back into its natural Smokies habitat in 1992.