High Vistas" is the first anthology devoted to nature writings on Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains. Each selection features a biographical essay introducing each author from celebrated naturalists John Muir and William Bartram to lesser-known writers whose words deserve to be heard and reveals how he or she went about exploring and depicting the region. Searching for rare wildflowers and elusive birds, scaling vertical cliffs, experimenting with medicinal plants, exploring a vast cavern, enduring horrific thunderstorms and encountering timber wolves, panthers, black bears and giant rattlesnakes are just some of the adventures that unfold in these pages."