A few nice smoky mountains images I found:
A Smoky Mountain Stream
Image by J. Stephen Conn
One of the things we love most about the Smokies are the hundreds of miles of swift flowing rocky streams. They’re everywhere. and with the dense vegetative cover and high rainfall the streams flow cool and clear – just begging you to take a drink. However, if you do you may regret it.
A microscopic intestinal parasite, giardia, makes drinking the water risky. Dogs, horses, and wild boar spread the parasite and the disease it causes, giardiasis. All water should be treated by boiling, filteration, or another accepted method before drinking. That said, I have quenched my thirst many times and suffered no ill effect when I was able to gather the water from a spring where it came bubbling from the ground.
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK*
Image by gobucks2
A waterfall in the Smoky’s seen as we were driving to Cades Cove.