The picture above is from Mortons Overlook near the top of Newfound Gap Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Looking down the valley towards Gatlinburg, you can see the Chimney Tops towards the upper left of the image. You can also see many dead fir trees. As many friends of the Smoky Mountains…
One of the ways that I survive here in the paradise of Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountains is by taking photographs of the many resort rental properties in the area. I love to get up before daybreak, get a log cabin all lit up and wait for those rosy fingers of dawn to just…
Showy Orchis (Galearis spectabilis) is, as the name implies, in the Orchid family. It’s a spectacular discovery, when you find it. But as a matter of fact, both times I’ve stumbled on this beauty have been at the edges of parking lots. Not exactly the distinguished presentation that might be expected for such a regal…
Toothwort (Dentaria diphylla) is another one of those tiny Smoky Mountain wildflowers that look so inconsequential when you gaze down on them from above. But get down to their level, especially with a magnifying glass or macro lens, and the delicate beauty is breathtaking. The Toothwort leaves were used as wild salad greens by Smoky…
Whenever the creeks of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park swell with rainfall, which is often in the springtime, the kayakers come forth. It seems like a daring adventure to me, and a paradoxical compromise between going with the flow and aggressively making your own path. These folks must watch the weather like tornado chasers,…
Dogwood Lullaby is a comfortable, lyrical photograph. You can almost hear the dogwood blossoms singing a soft melody on an easy-going Spring morning. Hard times of Winter are over, replaced by the lighthearted and feathery, warm and hopeful days of Spring. Well, I’m probably laying it on too thick, but Dogwood Lullaby is a picture…
Something green for St. Patrick’s Day. Nothing greener in the Great Smoky Mountains than the moss-covered rocks of the Roaring Fork. Conditions on the north face of Mt. LeConte create an extremely wet environment and a rich lushness of plant life. There may be no better example than the amazing green rocks and boulders along…
I think fog gets a bad name. It’s typically about what fog can obscure: living life in a fog, the fog of war, the fog of depression. Well, like our neighbor over in the mountains of western North Carolina, Carl Sandburg, I think fog has delightful qualities. For example, in the picture above, a dash…
Greenbrier Spring was taken just downstream from the bridge leading up the Ramsay Prong Road in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The creek entering from the right is the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River, and straight ahead is the Ramsay Prong entering. A beautiful spring day after the…
Porters Creek Trail is a delightful meander in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Head east out of Gatlinburg on Route 321, then after about 6 miles, the Greenbrier entrance will be on the right. Head up Greenbrier Road, which eventually turns to gravel, passed the bridge to the Ramsay Cascades…
There are many old pioneer cabins in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Most of them were constructed from native wood, shaped with hand tools such as the broad ax, froe, adz, and drawknife. The wood in these buildings seems unique and different, with a life of its own. Or perhaps it is the life…
Perhaps the last decent snowfall of the winter this week created a winter dreamscape up in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These pictures tell the whole story. Click on the first one to bring up a larger slide show, then put your mouse over the image to go forward or…
Another light snowstorm through most of the day yesterday, but not enough to close the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I drove up into the Greenbrier section and found a winter fairyland. So beautiful and dreamlike … I’ll have some more images soon from my roamings, but first a few abstract treatments….
The picture above is the footbridge leading to the Ramsey Cascades Trail in the Greenbrier section of the Smoky Mountains. Yes, it’s still cold and quiet around here. Another cold, snowy scene from the Greenbrier is below. But to warm things up on the waning days of winter, there’s a gallery of quotations down below….
The Big Creek section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is on the eastern side, with the easiest access being from Interstate 40. Take the Waterville exit (451), which is the last Tennessee exit going east. Proceed through a hydroelectric plant, crossing into North Carolina, through a four-way rural intersection and into the Park….
I live in Gatlinburg TN, on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. The Smokies are a very spiritual place, and I attempt to capture some of that spirit in each of my photographs.
If you are in Gatlinburg, please stop in at my gallery .
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