{"id":172,"date":"2025-07-01T22:04:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T22:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rickmercier.com\/?p=172"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:18:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T22:18:05","slug":"blue-ghost-and-synchronous-fireflies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickmercier.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/01\/blue-ghost-and-synchronous-fireflies\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Ghost and Synchronous Fireflies"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a story about fireflies. There are many types of fireflies in the Smoky Mountains.
\nThe two fireflies I\u2019m talking about is\u00a0Synchronous fireflies<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Blue Ghosts<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sometime in April the\u00a0National Park Service for the Smoky Mountains<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0has a lottery to see the fireflies.
\nIf you get lucky you get to ride on their bus up into the mountains near Elkmont and see the synchronous fireflies.
\nElkmont is near Gatlinburg TN, about six miles away. There is a great campground there and lots of interesting things to do.
\nUp in the back of Elkmont there is an\u00a0old resort village<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0you can explore.
\nLots of trails going all over the place can be found at Elkmont.<\/p>\n

The time for fireflies starts around the first week of June, give or take a week.
\nIt is something to see when they all glow.
\nIt starts out dark, then one firefly glows and then shortly after that all the fireflies in the area glow!
\nThen it\u2019s dark again and you wait for more!<\/p>\n

There is another firefly in the mountains, and it\u2019s called the\u00a0Blue Ghos<\/strong><\/a>t.
\nA friend of ours walked up a trail in Greenbrier area.
\nThere he saw them flying around.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/rickmercier.com\/podcasts\/BlueGhostFirefly.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This Blue Ghost story is a funny story, I suggest you click the link here and listen.
\n\"Greenbrier<\/p>\n

For more great travel ideas from #FrugalWay\u00a0Click here<\/strong><\/a>.
\nRick 7\/1\/2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a story about fireflies. There are many types of fireflies in the Smoky Mountains. The two fireflies I\u2019m talking about is\u00a0Synchronous fireflies\u00a0and the\u00a0Blue Ghosts. Sometime in April the\u00a0National Park Service for the Smoky […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,24],"tags":[25,27,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-camping","8":"category-story-time","9":"tag-blueghost","10":"tag-fireflies","11":"tag-firefly"},"yoast_head":"\nBlue Ghost and Synchronous Fireflies - Rick Mercier's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is a story about the Blue Ghost fireflies in the Elkmont campground area in Tennessee. 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