Oh Liz! Those were beautiful pics. It 'helped' that I'm missing TN and my boys.... Those views are what I fell in love with and decided my move to TN from upstate NY in '94. Running up and down I81 in the big truck the views would take my breath away.
That area of northeast TN, southwest NC, "The Smokey Mts" is only second to the PNW for rain fall. So yeah you will find lots of it will look rather like a rain forest.
Thank you so much for posting them in your blog.