<P> The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance . This fog is caused by the vegetation exhaling volatile organic compounds, chemicals that have a high vapor pressure and easily form vapors at normal temperature and pressure . </P> <P> As a result of the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, the Great Smoky Mountains have received international media coverage . </P> <P> The Great Smoky Mountains stretch from the Pigeon River in the northeast to the Little Tennessee River to the southwest . The northwestern half of the range gives way to a series of elongate ridges known as the "Foothills," the outermost of which include Chilhowee Mountain and English Mountain . The range is roughly bounded on the south by the Tuckasegee River and to the southeast by Soco Creek and Jonathan Creek . The Great Smokies comprise parts of Blount County, Sevier County, and Cocke County in Tennessee and Swain County and Haywood County in North Carolina . </P> <P> The sources of several rivers are located in the Smokies, including the Little Pigeon River, the Oconaluftee River, and Little River . Streams in the Smokies are part of the Tennessee River watershed and are thus entirely west of the Eastern Continental Divide . The largest stream wholly within the park is Abrams Creek, which rises in Cades Cove and empties into the Chilhowee Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River near Chilhowee Dam . </P>

Where does the smoky mountains begin and end