We are excited to welcome back the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage April 22-25, 2026!
Registration opens March 1, 2026! 2026 Program Release: Mid-February
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 3-hour workshops will be in session at Arrowmont!
The SWFP is an annual nonprofit event featuring professionally-guided walks, exhibits, and other learning opportunities to explore the region’s rich natural and cultural resources. Pilgrims from more than 40 states and several countries make the pilgrimage each year to learn more about fungi, ferns, wildflowers, trees and shrubs, medicinal plants, insects (terrestrial and aquatic), salamanders and snakes, birds, mammals (bats to bears), journaling, art and photography, and park history.
About the Pilgrimage
“Throughout the long history of the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (SWFP GSMNP), the underlying mission and philosophy has simply been to bring people together to fellowship, form connections, bonds, and friendships through a common interest focused on spreading curiosity, knowledge, appreciation, and education of natural history, biology, ecology, conservation, and land management.
Our programming is extensive and biologically diverse. Since 1951, this annual event in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has featured professionally-guided walks, exhibits, and other learning opportunities to explore the region’s rich natural and cultural resources. In recent times, more than 900 pilgrims from more than 35 states and several countries joined us. Our programs include fungi, ferns, wildflowers, trees and shrubs, medicinal plants, insects (terrestrial and aquatic), salamanders and snakes, birds, mammals (bats to bears), journaling, art and photography, and park history. For more information on what hikes we offer, take a look at our example program on the home page.”
For more information, registration and programming, visit their website here!
Photos from 2025’s workshop sessions!
