Research on Grandfather Mountain has confirmed the presence of 10 species of fireflies or luminous insects, including synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus), blue ghost fireflies (Phausis reticulata) and glowworms (Orfelia fultoni). Synchronous fireflies are habitat specialists and thrive in northern hardwood forests, such as those found at Grandfather Mountain.

These glowing wonders only appear for a few weeks each year. Our annual Grandfather Glows events open our nature park for three nights during mid-June to mid-July, the forecasted peak times, for special bioluminescent evenings, weather and conditions permitting.

The three 2025 Grandfather Glows event dates will be announced May 16.

The Grandfather Glows ticket lottery will take place May 19-25.

• The lottery will be open from 12 a.m. Monday, May 19 to 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 25, Eastern Time.
• A lottery entry is $5, plus tax.
• You do not need to worry about selecting your preferred event date or indicating how many tickets you would like during the initial lottery registration. If selected as a winner, you will have the opportunity to purchase up to six tickets.
• Only one entry per email address is allowed. Our system will not allow you to enter the same email address more than once.

Find more details about Grandfather Glows here.