If you’re one of those people who can’t take your time off during the holidays, I’ve got a suggestion for some January fun – if you like the outdoors and the mountains. Just over the state line in Pigeon Forge, Wilderness Wildlife Week is scheduled from January 7 through the 14, 2012. 

Guided hikes are scheduled each day through selected parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Each hike has a sign up starting the day before and many fill up quickly. But most of the week takes place indoors, at the Music Road Hotel and Convention Center.

In hour-long sessions, you can pick up pointers on folk medicine (and learn a lot about mountain ginseng,) the history of the park, fly fishing, nature photography woods-lore and folk-lore. There will be live music – including banjo, dobro and dulcimer, folk music, historic country music, ballads, old-timey hymn singing and shaped note singing. Presentations will explain about bears in the park, wolves, owls, elk, osprey and the possibility of panthers. There will be sessions on wildflowers of the area, butterflies and the tremendous variety of trees native to the Smoky Mountains.

People come from all the surrounding states to enjoy this week of nature – some getting out there for a hike or two, some in the comfort of the convention center learning enough to better enjoy it when the weather gets warmer.  Oh, and did I mention that the sessions are all at no-cost?

Check the schedule and make your plans to attend part of the week or all. I visited last year during the great snowstorm – and even though the snow was inches thick, the roads were clear and restaurants were open.  By the way, the Winterfest tour of lights (by trolley) lasts through January 13 – so if you didn’t get enough holidays during December, you can still get some of it in Pigeon Forge.

Photos by John Erbele