I captured this sunrise image at the Luftee Overlook along the Newfound Gap Road in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park in October, 2023. The overlook looks straight down the middle of the Oconaluftee Valley and is a fantastic place for viewing the sunrise. The native Cherokee people traditionally called the Great Smoky Mountains Shaconage, which translates to “place of the blue smoke.” Euro-American settlers drew from this name in their own label of “Smoky Mountains,” with “Great” being added at some point or another to reflect the massiveness and grandeur of the range. There’s a whitish-blue mistiness to the scenery, a beautiful kind of haze that slightly blurs the long ridges and rounded peaks. The same natural haze explains the name of the broader Southern Appalachian province to which the Great Smokies belong: the Blue Ridge Mountains.