In North Carolina, one of my favourite activities is to climb up to admire the forest as far as the eye can see. Often photographed in local guides, Clingmans Dome is the ideal place to enjoy this unspoilt vegetation. I still remember the emotion I felt and the feeling of freedom when, after a short ascent on the immense structure that spans the canopy, I found myself above the infinite wooded valley shaped by the carved relief of the Appalachians. Sometimes, the peaks would be drowned in a thick bluish mist that gave this Appalachian mountain range its name of "smoking mountains".