My friend Cathie and I had been talking about taking a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains since she returned from her trip there this past October. Since I usually travel the last week of April somewhere, we decided this would be a good time for our trip. I drove out Sunday morning, April 23, and arrived late afternoon. We then set about creating a general outline of how we would tackle the park. The first full day was Monday, and the one spot I wanted to see was Sparks Lane in Cades Cove. Since Cades Cove is set in a valley, it frequently is foggy in the morning. As infrared photography is my favorite photographic medium, I knew it would provide some excellent infrared opportunities. But, earlier is better, the fog tends to burn off quickly. So, we couldn’t get there early enough for sunrise, but we would get there not long after sunrise. I say “would” because Mother Nature threw a curve ball at us- due to the heavy rains the area had experienced both Saturday and Sunday, the road into Cades Cove was closed because of a downed tree. The featured image is the road, just past the closed gate. So, we explored the area near the gate. At one point, a park ranger drove past Cathie, and he said we could take an alternate route to get to Cades Cove after all. It was a long detour, but we did get there after all, and the fog was still in the valley. The photo below is one of the infrared photos I took there.

We explored more of the Cades Cove area- the loop itself can take up a few hours, winding through the valley, stopping at several old structures, and giving great views of the valley. We stopped at the John Oliver cabin, one of 80 historic buildings in the park. The cabin is set deep in the woods, and is very well preserved.

We continued on to the old Cable Grist Mill and the surrounding buildings, including the barn and corn cribs. The woods surrounding the mill provided us an unexpected opportunity to photograph some deer up close and personal.

After leaving the Cades Cove area, later in the afternoon, we went to the Tremont area, along the Middle Prong Little River. Due to the rains, the rivers and streams were running fiercely, and there was an abundance of opportunities to photograph the running waters, and waterfalls on the roadside.

This was the start of my first exploration of the Smokies. There is more to come, we had three more days of fun!