Tag: nationalparks

The Smokies- Back of Beyond

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“The dreamy, blue haze that ever hovers over the mountains softens all outlines, lends a mirage-like effect of great distance to objects that are but a few miles off while those farther removed grow more and more intangible, until finally the skyline blends with the sky itself.” Horace Kephart


It is becoming an annual tradition now, where Cathie and I head to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. In 2018, we went twice. I wrote about the first trip, from April, but didn’t get a chance to write about the Thanksgiving excursion. Having just come back from there now, I have decided to just write a little about the park, not necessarily what I have done there, but the experience of being there.

It’s one of the few places where you can be in a heavy, tourist area like Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, but a short drive later, you are off the grid. Twenty minutes out of these heavily populated areas, you have no cellular signal. And while it is the most heavily visited parks, outpacing all of the others by quite a substantial margin each year, you can find yourself away from others. As primarily a landscape and nature photographer, hopefully it’s not hard to understand why I’m drawn to this place. After all, the park owes its existence to photographers.

I had the chance to see the park in late fall, over Thanksgiving last year. There were a few days where there was a heavy frost in the valleys. The park still held tremendous beauty, even if a little stark, with winter about to set in.

Prior to November, my trips had been in spring, although they were after the wildflowers had bloomed. This time, we planned our trip to be closer to bloom. The forests and valleys were awakening, we had timed our trip well this time. The day I arrived was quite rainy, and the rain continued the first full day in the park last Monday. As a result, the streams, rivers and waterfalls were raging. This offered us a myriad of photo opportunities during the week, which we took full advantage of.

Mostly, this past week was about detaching from day-to-day life. I didn’t come back with a tremendous amount of photos. I tried to make the photos count, though. And I also wanted to just be in the moment. Hearing the streams running. Walking out onto the balcony of our cabin with a cup of coffee in the morning, with the only sounds being birds chirping and wind blowing in the trees. It was sublime. It was a fantastic week, as was the week we spent there in November. And while I might not be able to return to the Smokies this year, I will be back, to the back of beyond.

First Road Trip for 2018- Finale

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The day started with a drive on Newfound Gap Road, which traverses the highest parts of the park, and ends in North Carolina. Along the way is Clingman’s Dome, the highest peak in the park. The hike to the observation tower is not a long hike, but, the trail is very steep, it is ranked as one of the more strenuous hikes in the park. Knowing that, we all decided to stay by the parking lot, which still offers some fantastic views of the mountains. Among the cars parked were several Minis, they were either on their to or from a rally. One of the Minis caught my eye- I am a huge Jeremy Clarkson fan, and the owner of the car turned it into a Clarkson/Top Gear tribute. I had to get some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a picnic lunch on the way to North Carolina, and continued on to the old Mingus Mill, which is near the Oconluftee Visitor’s Center (the North Carolina side of the park).

After stopping at the center, we headed back, and stopped at a turnoff overlooking the Oconoluftee River. We got some long exposures of the rushing water, and then continued back toward the NW end of the park where we were staying. We made another stop at Tremont, and by the time we were done there, it was dinner time.

 

 

 

 

We drove into Gatlinburg and had dinner at Bones BBQ Joint, it was a great last meal of the trip. Afterward, we went to the Ole Smoky Distillery and had a moonshine tasting. I bought some to bring back, it was really good!

 

 

 

 

 

Thus ended our spring excursion to the Smokies. As always, a fantastic time, with great people to share the experience with. Cathie and I will be returning to the Smokies in November. Before then, other adventures await, it will be a great summer!

First Road Trip for 2018, Part 6

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Thursday, May 3- recovery day. We didn’t have a set wake up time due to the strenuous hike from the previous day. The simple act of walking, going up and down stairs, standing up and sitting down, all were very tough. My legs were not prepared for the work, but, I’m not one to just sit around either. We went to breakfast at a place Cathie had seen during one of her previous trips, the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant The food was incredible, we ate more than we should have, but, it was a great reward for the previous day’s efforts. Their apple fritters were delicious, and Cathie bought some of their mix to take home. We walked around the candy store and their general stores, before heading out for our next stop, back to Cades Cove. After stopping at their stores, we left the park and played a round of miniature golf. We drove back out to Townsend, to see if we could get some information on cabins or hotels for future trips.

We intentionally left the day open and didn’t push our bodies too far, although Cathie fared better than I did. Later in the afternoon, we went back to photograph some of the roadside streams in Greenbriar, and on better days, I would have walked down the somewhat steep slopes to get closer to the water. But, I knew my legs were not going to handle it well, and I could just envision me tumbling down, breaking either bones, or my camera gear, or both. So, I played it safe and stayed up where we parked. Still, I got some photos I was pleased with.

We went back to the cabin, had dinner and relaxed a bit. It was a very light day.

First Road Trip for 2018, Part 5

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Wednesday, May 2.

We had breakfast at the cabin, and prepared for what we knew was going to be the toughest day of the trip. There are two very strenuous distance hikes in the park, and we wanted to do at least one of them on this trip. We chose the Ramsey Cascade’s trail, because it seemed that it would be the easier of the two, on paper. The waterfalls at the end of the trail are the tallest in the park. The last photo doesn’t do them justice, they are about 60-70 feet tall.

We arrived around 9:15 am at the parking lot at the trail head. The trail is about 4 linear miles one way, and we knew from what we had read that it was uphill most of the way to the falls. While I had not really trained for this kind of hike, I was confident. After all, this is not one of the trails chosen by the Navy SEALs for BUDs training. So we set off with the idea that we would be back to the car by mid afternoon.

We got back to the car a little over 9 hours later.

There is about a 2,200 elevation change one way. I was carrying over 40 lbs of camera gear, with plantar fasciitis in my right foot, two herniated discs in my back, and a surgically repaired right knee. But, none of that stopped me. It just meant that the going was slow. And it was for all of us. We had to make numerous stops on the way up. And when I say it is uphill, it’s steep in several spots. And, the last 1/8 of a mile was basically climbing over and around huge boulders, there wasn’t really a “trail.”

 

We brought provisions for the hike. It was one bottle of water for each of us, and one granola bar. For the entire day. By the time I had gotten to the 3 mile mark (going up), my granola bar was gone. And I finished the water before I got to the waterfalls. So, there were no provisions at all for the return hike.

When we finally got to the falls, Cathie had already sat down on the big rock in front of the falls. I put my gear down, and lay down flat on the rock on my stomach. I didn’t kiss the rock, but it was the same idea.

Cathie christened this “the hike from hell.” I will not disagree. She and I also made a suicide pact on the way back down. It was brutal. My legs were hardly holding me up as we were heading back down the trail. I tripped over my own feet, over rocks, branches, tree roots, you name it. And you know what? I would do it again. Because with all this being said, the pay off was incredible. And even with all this, there were spots that were achingly beautiful along the way. They had put narrow log bridges across some sections of the stream. I paused at these just lose myself in the moment, the water rushing below, the wind in the trees, and no other ambient sounds. In those moments, I truly understand what John Muir meant when he said “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares drop away from you like the leaves of autumn.”

I used up everything I had that day on that hike. It took my legs several days to really recover from it. Walking was not easy, but even worse was the hill we had to walk up and down to get to and from our cabin. And the stairs in the cabin to and from my bedroom really, really sucked. But these were just muscle aches. My foot, back and knee held up fine.

It was a day we all will never forget.

 

First Road Trip for 2018 Continues

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Sunday morning, after getting breakfast at the hotel in Danville, KY, Joe and I set off for the Smokies. The drive isn’t a very long one, so rather than taking interstates, we jumped off and took some back roads south through Kentucky, until we joined up with I-75 just south of the border with Tennessee. The drive took us through part of the Daniel Boone National Forest, some beautiful country. Our meet up with Cathie was at the Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Smokies. When we got into Sevierville, and then into Pigeon Forge, what would have been a 20-30 minute drive into the park took nearly twice as long, traffic was very much like a weekday rush hour in Chicago.

We ended up having to park in the RV parking lot, and then walked over to the visitor center where Cathie was waiting outside on one of the benches. After the first of many purchases in and around the park for the rest of the week, and Joe joining the Great Smoky Mountains Association, we drove into Gatlinburg, got lunch, dropped off our rental in a public parking lot, and ventured back into the park to introduce Joe to it. We intended to head into Cades Cove, and stopped at a roadside bridge over one of the many rivers in the park. I took a few infrared photos from there, including the one below.

 

But, as it was early afternoon and a cloudless day, the light was very harsh, so we didn’t take a lot of photos. We decided to continue on to Cades Cove, and, ran into a traffic jam due to repaving. We found a space to turn around, and, realizing that we still had to go back into Pigeon Forge to check in to our cabin, we decided to leave and take care of that. We also needed to stock up on food and other items we would need for the week.

The cabin rental company’s office is right next to the Titanic museum, and I was hoping that wouldn’t be a metaphor for the rest of the week. We checked in, and headed to the cabin. It was quite an entertaining (and nerve-wracking drive) up some winding mountain roads to get to it. While the directions seemed complicated, it didn’t take us long to master them, as well as finding a shortcut that wasn’t mentioned by the cabin rental folks. We unloaded the vehicles, then headed back down to Pigeon Forge to get dinner, and then stock up. We got back to the cabin after dark, settled in, and made our plans for the next day.

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Part 2

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Tuesday turned out to be the most active day Cathie and I had in the Smokies. Unbeknownst to me, a virus was manifesting itself in my system. What I had thought was just allergies due to the extremely high pollen in the area was something else entirely, although I had not realized it yet.

Back to Tuesday. We decided to to do a longer hike in the morning, up to Laurel Falls. The trail is paved, but it is uphill all the way to the top, 1.3 miles one way. A good way to get the blood flowing! When you arrive at the top, you cross a footbridge and can spend time at the top of the falls. That is not all there is to see, though. If you’re adventurous, you can hike down the rocky trails on either side, and see the lower part of the falls. Cathie and I hung out at the top for a bit, getting lots of long exposures of the top of the falls. I also set up my iPhone on a Platypod, and shot both timelapses and slow motion videos of the falls. Product plug: get a Platypod! They are the BEST! They provide a stable platform either for a phone or camera, where tripods are not either allowed or practical. With some bungie cords, you can tie it to a tree too. I highly recommend them, I have both the Platypod Max and Platypod Pro, and I do NOT travel without them.

Enough product plugging! We took some portraits of the other tourists at the top, in front of the falls, and it occurred to me we should have charged a fee! I made a few connections, hopefully some are reading this post! Cathie and I were able to get our portraits taken by a kind tourist, the first time really we ended up in front of the camera together. I’d really rather be taking photos than having my photo taken.

Being adventurous souls, Cathie and I went down the side of the hill, and got some photos of the lower part of the falls. And, in keeping with the “falls” theme, I slipped on a wet rock at the bottom, and went down on my left hip and arm. I still have quite an impressive bruise on my hip. That, and a bruised ego were the only injuries, luckily.

From there, we hiked back down the trail, and intended to visit the Roaring Fork area next. As it turns out, we went the wrong way, and ended up on the Newfound Gap Road, which takes you up to the ridgeline. It turned out to be a fortuitous happenstance (good band name!). As we got to the top, we decided to go up to the top of Clingman’s Dome, and the observation tower. That half mile hike to the observation tower turned out to be a FAR more strenuous hike than the 1.3 mile hike to Laurel Falls. Still, it was absolutely worth it. We got to look down on the tops of the clouds which covered the valley from which we had just come. Words cannot describe it. The featured photo of this blog is an infrared photo I took from the observation tower.

The drive down, after we finished at Clingman’s Dome, featured a lot of “WHEEE”s from Cathie, and some groaning from me. I have not gotten car sick since I was a kid. I came close on this drive.

The day finished in Greenbriar, along another fast moving river. I shot some more long exposures there, and some video. We then got some burgers at the Burger Barn (and I got a beer). A great finish to a spectacular day. Up next, the plague rears its ugly head…