Smokey Mountain National Park

Cold windy Saturday Morning. At Clingmans Dome.

Even though the forcast was marginal and I had not recently verified there really is a 5 o'clock A.M. This Intrepid Photo Bufff braved the elements along with many others to catch the Sunrise. We were richly Rewarded.

OK the Sunrise only lasted for 2 or 3 minutes. But it was extremely colorful. We were around 6,500 feet and the clouds felt like they were only inches above us.

This is why we came. It was hinting at clearing up. And it did turn out to be a spectacular day for taking pictures.

The SMNP has the Appilachian Trail pass trhu it. While thse wonderfully improved paths probaly bear no resembleance to that famous route the park's trails did supply wonderful locations for midday shooting. The leaves were gently falling. Although the overall colors were somewhat muted.

I have always wanted to do that artsy veiled waterfall shot. Well We had lots of oppurtunities to test our skill. This was one of my favorites. I especially enjoyed the bridge.

Even though this one of the busiest weeks of the year we were able to find some secludes scenes to shoot. Occasionaly we had to wait for one of the thousands of visitors to pass but rarely was it troublesome.The traffic however was a another story.

Another of the many waterfalls. But the thing that blew me away was the gaint Rhododendrons. To me a Rhododendron is a cute little shrub. Here they were the size of trees. Way too cool.

The tempurature was just perfect for hiking and exploring. During mid day the light angle was nice for the streams and valleys.

Coming from the Flat & Gray. It always impresses me to se actual geographic relief. What a concept. You mean its not FLAT!

So we are driving along and say "hey Let's find a scenic vista with the angular criss crossing distant Ridge kind of thingy" So within seconds there is a perect example. This place is sooo cool. If this keeps up I may actualy think about taking up landscape photography.

Got Trees?

I still can't decise which orientation I like better? Landscape or Portrait.

Sunday Day 2. About an hour before sunrise we drove to an area called Cade's Cove. Unfortunaley the gates did not open till after sunrise. Oops. So much for the sunrise pictures. Cade's Cove is an 11 mile loop that is totally different than the other areas of the park. There is lots of "hands of man" kinds of scenes. Embrace it. Being in the valley at dawn the mist and light were constantly changing. Add the moving critters and you had to be on the look out for good scenes to develop. The Frost on the ground was crunchy. Way too cool.

The warm sunrise against the frost. Was stunning.

The 2 guys in the background were quite rambunchious. Naying sounds and all. The guy in the foreground must have been specially trained to pose. City folk are so easily amused.

They have a wide variety of fences to work with here. But whatch those barbs. Ouch! There is something photogenic about fences. I had many shots using them at cade's Cove. This is one of my favs.

One of the emphasis of Cade's Cove was the houses and structures of the settlers. There were numerous churches and farm type structures restored and preserved. We really did not devle into the history but thaey did make for nice subject matter to photograph.

The low light angle along with the Frost and mist made for a surreal experience. It was also so quite.

There were zillions of deer. If you did not agitate them they would not flee too far. Some were more cooperative then others.

The freindly ranger. Was drying off the road kill from the previous night....

Just Kidding...

These were some of the critters taht used to roam here. Some are still around but in smaller numbers. As usual in one ear out the other. They were not warm and fuzzy. Just fuzzy.

That is I needed Adobe to fix these frames.

Old photoshop joke. The roads were slightly better than perfect. I think they were actually buffed the night before. I did see one crack the size of a quarter. Considering the TRAFFIC. that was amazing. I was really fun waiting to see what great scenery was around the next bend.

The one good thing about Gatlinburg is there is a bypass around it. Use it and life is good.

Ok so maybe the colors were not to spetacular. But everything else was wonderful. Except for...

Holy Cow. I mean WTF. Like just shoot me. and I don't mean with a camera. It took us 2 hours to go 14 miles. That happen 4 times in 2 days. That is 8 friggin hours stuck in traffic. We read some poop on the web about traffic. But I mean we are talking all time abosolute totally insane. I comute every day in Chicago and that is a car race compared to this. This was not even stop and go. It was stop and stop. I wish I could use even more profanity to vent. But that would reflect poorly on my Christian upbringing. But I have posted a realy nice blog to that effect and I feel much better now.