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This is a field of "magical surprise" flowers I encountered on the way up Clingman's Dome. Just turned a corner, and surprise, there they were. Now imagine that two months earlier a bunch of folks had decided, hey, I think I'll just tent under those trees and avoid the crowds and noise and mice, I bet those scrubby little plants will even be soft. No one will care, no one will notice. I hardly think the flowering plants would have survived that.