Salamander hunting with a seven-year-old: the Smokies’ best-kept secret

Our seven-year-old has a list of animals he wants to see in every national park we visit. In the Smokies, bear was number one. By the end of the week, bear had dropped to number two. Number one was "the orange lizard thing," which is not a lizard at all. It is a salamander, and he found eleven of them.

I spent years in a research lab, and I will admit I got just as excited as he did. There is something about a curious child on his belly next to a mossy log that reminds you why you loved science in the first place.

The Great Smoky Mountains are known as the Salamander Capital of the World, with 30 different species. The cool, wet forests and endless clear streams are exactly what salamanders love. Many of them have no lungs at all and breathe through their skin, a fact that will delight any child and gross out most adults.

The ones to know

• Red-cheeked salamander. Black with bright red cheeks, and found nowhere else on earth but the high elevations of this park. Spotting one is a true Smokies badge of honor.
• Red eft. The young land stage of the eastern newt, bright orange and often walking right across the trail after rain. This was our son's "orange lizard thing."
• Dusky salamanders. Small, brown and common along creek edges. The easiest ones for kids to spot.
• Hellbender. A giant, flat, wrinkly salamander that can reach about two and a half feet long. They live under big rocks in fast streams and are rarely seen, which makes them legendary.

How to spot them (without harming them)

We made it a game. After an afternoon thunderstorm, we walked a quiet trail near Metcalf Bottoms and looked along the damp edges of the path, at the base of mossy logs and in the wet leaves near little seeps of water. Our three-year-old was in charge of pointing. Our seven-year-old was in charge of whispering "don't step on it" every four feet. My husband lay flat on the trail for ten minutes to get the perfect close-up, and the boys thought that was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

The kindest way to enjoy salamanders is to look, not touch. Their skin is very thin and absorbs things like sunscreen, bug spray and the oils from our hands. If you do lift a small rock to peek, lift it slowly, look, and set it back exactly where it was. Never stack rocks or build rock dams in streams; that destroys the homes salamanders and their eggs depend on.

The best souvenir from that trip was not from a gift shop. It was a little boy who now wants to be a scientist.

Where to look near our house

Any shady, damp trail near a creek is good salamander country. Our favorites are the walk from Metcalf Bottoms toward the Little Greenbrier School, the streamside areas around Townsend , and the misty spruce forest near Kuwohi for the high-elevation species. The best time is after a summer rain, when the forest floor is wet and they come out to wander.