There are few places where you can see fireflies all flicker at the same time, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of them.
So popular are these displays that park officials block traffic through the Elkmont Entrance Road so they can provide transportation for visitors wanting to see the synchronous fireflies -- aka, lightning bugs -- at Elkmont.
From June 5 through June 13 the park will be closing the Elkmont Entrance Road from 5 p.m. to midnight -- except for registered campers at the Elkmont Campground -- so they can get visitors in to see the firefly display. You can get an idea of what this look's like at this page.
The City of Gatlinburg, in partnership with the park, will provide trolleys for this activity. The trolley service, coinciding with the expected peak flashing period, will be the sole transportation mode for visitor access during this period; no private vehicles will be allowed to enter Elkmont.
For safety purposes, restrictions will be in place to prohibit motor vehicles from parking along roadsides, pullouts, or any other areas besides at the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking area for the purposes of viewing fireflies at Elkmont. Only those visitors parking at the visitor center will be allowed to ride the trolleys. Because of safety concerns, visitors will not be allowed to walk the Elkmont entrance road.
The trolleys will begin picking up visitors from the Sugarlands Visitor Center RV/bus parking area at 7 p.m. The trolleys will run continually until the Sugarlands Visitor Center parking area is full or until 9 p.m., whichever comes first. The last trolley to return visitors from Elkmont to the Sugarlands Visitor Center is scheduled at 11 p.m. The cost will be $1 round trip per person as in previous years.
For those riding the trolleys, it is recommended that visitors bring flashlights with red cellophane covers to reduce white light. Visitors can bring lawn chairs, and carry food and water in backpacks which can fit on their laps in the trolleys; there are no services available at the site.
Visitors are prohibited from bringing coolers, alcoholic beverages, or their pets.
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Comments
Elkmont isn't the only such location in the Smokies, just the most crowded.
I agree with the first comment. We have seen the synchronous fireflies in GSMNP as well, just not at Elkmont. It is very cool!
would like to see this but im thinking elkmont will be too crowded. Any suggestions of where else we could go????
New Guinea would be my recommendation.
But seriously, I've seen synchronized flashing in Duke Forest in Chapel Hill in the Piedmont. You should be able to see it in many areas in Pisgah and Nantahala NFs. Bob's post from last year listed more specific locations in GRSM.
Males of Photinus carolinus in the Piedmont & mountains in North Carolina synchronize their flashing over distances of 20-200 meters. Males appear to synchronize themselves to some consensus of nearby males, so a scattering of foci of flashing grow outward until their areas of synchronization meet, leaving males on the boundaries either unsyncrhonized or switching back & forth in which group they synchronize with. Any place with relatively open understory with some of the right low shrubs will do.
The reason for New Guinea is that there, instead of spreading out across shrubs, hundreds to thousands of males crowd together on individual shrubs, making the shrubs look more like spectacular Christmas decorations.
The synchrononous flashing is spectacular in the Smokies, but it's not the only place I've seen this phenomenon. I've seen it in Shenandoah and while camping in Catoctin in June. I found they were best seen under the canopy in low trees and bushes. The more room there is between the bushes and the canopy the better. I've often seen them flash by the banks of streams. When I was a kid in New England, I would often see this flashing in swampy areas in July. I don't know if it means anything, but every time I've seen this the weather was very muggy. I am by no means an expert, but I think the amount of moisture in the air is a factor.