Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in Great Smoky Mountains

04/29/2026

One of the many times I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Peter Raven. The first time I was in grad school at LSU and he had lunch with all the botany graduate students….the last time was at ASB in Charleston, WV where he received the John Herr Award…. Peter Raven and E.O.Wilson were the Rock Stars of “our” world😎

04/28/2026

🌼 THANK YOU to our Quilt Silent Auction winners, Mary and Laura!! The proceeds from the quilts go towards the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage non-profit organization and event, which directly funds lodging and meals for our incredible program leaders. We greatly appreciate the generosity from Mary and Laura, and from Laura the quilter who donated her handmade quilts for fundraising purposes.

04/28/2026

04/26/2026

🌱 Thank you Pilgrims and Leaders for another successful Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage!! We hope you had a fantastic time and were able to form connections, bonds, and friendships over a common interest in spreading knowledge and appreciation for nature's greatest classroom. Please keep sharing your photos and uploading observations to our iNaturalist Project!

We hope you'll save the date for the 77th annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage on April 7th to 10th, 2027. With the event being two weeks earlier than recent years, who knows what spring species we'll encounter!! See you next year!

04/24/2026

Our Online Quilt Silent Auction has been extended until 8:00 pm tonight (Friday night)! Get your bids in now using the QR code or this link: https://auctions.signupgenius.com/bid/swfp-2026-quilts/ #/index

These one of a kind quilts were handmade by an award winning quilter, Laura Pala, and were generously donated to SWFP for fundraising. The large flower quilt fits a queen sized bed (width: 63.5", height: 71"). The smaller brown quilt is a lap quilt (width: 51", height: 58"). All proceeds benefit the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage non-profit organization and event.

Join us this afternoon from 5:00 - 8:00 pm at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts for our native plant sale, vendors, and SWFP table. There is no evening speaker event tonight, so come spend some time browsing the vendors and enjoying the Arrowmont galleries. Park in downtown Gatlinburg and walk onto the campus.

04/24/2026

Remember to join our 2026 iNaturalist Project if you haven't already! Join with this link https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/spring-wildflower-pilgrimage-2026 or search "Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage 2026" in "Projects" at iNaturalist.org or in the app. Click "join" in the top right corner. Then your observations throughout the event will automatically be added to our SWFP Project. You can also upload photos that you've already taken!

Participating in our iNaturalist Project helps park managers keep track of the biodiversity that Pilgrims and Leaders encounter in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage. Every year SWFP is one of the biggest biodiversity collection weeks in the park and the NPS is able to use the data to monitor and manage park species! Let’s keep the momentum going this year!

Who will make it to the top of the leaderboard?? We encourage friendly competition to see who has the most observations and most species....

04/23/2026

Good morning Pilgrims!!! Today is the first full day of hikes! Please see these important updates for the Ramsey Cascades Hikes and Gatlinburg Trail Hikes.

04/23/2026

Happy Earth Day! 🌎

Today we’re also celebrating 28 years of Discover Life in America and the Smokies’ All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory. Since April 22, 1998, we’ve partnered with Great Smoky Mountains National Park to document every species we can find—and we’re just getting started.

In that time, we’ve more than doubled the number of species known in the park and documented 1,111 species new to science—organisms never before recorded anywhere on Earth.

Why does that matter? Because biodiversity isn’t just beautiful—it’s essential. It’s the foundation of clean water, resilient ecosystems, and a stable climate.

We wouldn’t have been able to keep the discoveries going over the last 28 years without the support of our wonderful park partners, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Smokies Life and Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont!

This earth day, we hope you’ll help protect Great Smoky Mountains National Park by supporting the park and its partners!

04/22/2026

Check out the native plants for sale at this year’s Pilgrimage!! Vendors are here at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts so swing in as you arrive to town today (Wednesday). They will also be here during the lunch breaks and in the evenings through Saturday.

04/20/2026

Looking forward to our three Arrowmont Art workshops this year!!