Wildsam Field Guides: Great Smoky Mountains by Taylor Bruce

Wildsam Field Guides: Great Smoky Mountains by Taylor Bruce

Wildsam Field Guides: Great Smoky Mountains guide will give visitors new and deeper ways of seeing the country's most-visited national park.

In this fresh look at America's most visited national park there's plenty to discover.

• Our essential list of Smokies books, music and artists
• Southern Appalachian dishes of note
• Highlights from the park's diverse flora and fauna
• Local Cherokee stories, past and present
• Itineraries, trail recs and side trips
• Viewing tips for wildlife from fireflies and butterflies to elk and bears
• Interviews with park rangers, trolley drivers and thru-hikers
• Fifteen base camps around the region, from rustic to high luxury
• Intel from a fly fisherman and a rafting outfitter

Wildsam Field Guides' Founder and Editor-in-Chief is Taylor Bruce. He grew up on his family's farm on the Georgia-Alabama border. Taylor went to Vanderbilt University to study writing and then worked as a freelance writer for publications such as Men's Journal, Oxford American, and National Geographic Adventure, among others. In 2007, he accepted a full-time writing position at Southern Living. Taylor founded Wildsam in his 500-square-foot apartment in 2012 after relocating to New York and earning an MA in Creative Writing at Brooklyn College.

Wildsam received the Traveler 50 award from National Geographic in 2015 for his original Nashville guide, which drew the attention of national media and thoughtful visitors alike. Taylor, his wife, Robin, and their two kids, Booker and Truett, live in Austin, Texas.