Place of 1000 Drips
Place of 1000 Drips is a roadside waterfall along the Roaring Fork Motor Trail. Turn at stoplight #8 in Gatlinburg, bearing to the right at the top of the hill, you will enter the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and begin a 6-mile one-way journey on a winding, narrow road through a carefree and timeless canopy of Smoky Mountain paradise. Towards the end of your journey, keep an eye out to the left for Place of 1000 Drips. Certain times of the year the waterfall is reduced to literally a group of drips, but in Spring especially it can be quite impressive.
This photograph was taken in Spring, and if you look closely there is a White Trillium on the bank to the left. Balancing my tripod and myself on the slippery rocks, the picture was captured with a wide-angle lens.
Place of 1000 Drips is offered in all sizes up to 20×30. Details of sizes and pricing can be found on at the bottom of the Gatlinburg Gallery page.
Smoky Mountain Wildflower: Bloodroot
The calendar has turned towards warmth and renewal, the trails are shaking off their winter drowse, and once again we are headed towards the great spring wildflower pilgrimage.
Bloodroot is a delicate, subtle beauty that blooms in late March or very early April in the lower elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As the bloom is short-lived, the plant is most easily identified by its distinctive multi-lobed leaf. There is a great cluster of Bloodroot near the start of Porters Creek Trail.
Bloodroot gets its name from the reddish sap found in its root. The sap was used by settlers for dye, and was also used as an herbal remedy, although modern knowledge suggests caution for the toxicity of Bloodroot, even for external use.
Road to Tremont
Road to Tremont is in fact the road leading into one of my favorite areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but it really could be anywhere in the Park on a rainy day in autumn. What makes Road to Tremont a captivating picture is the mood, and the emotions of being on a drive in the Smokies, miles away from whatever cares were left behind. Also, most images with lines receding to a vanishing point are intriguing to the eye. In this case, the road with its center lines, the creek, and the roadside leaves all recede to a converging point in the distance. It adds a dash of mystery and pulls the viewer into the scene.
Road to Tremont is offered in all sizes up to 16×24. Details of sizes and pricing can be found on at the bottom of the Gatlinburg Gallery page.
Porters Creek trailhead
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 Trail, straight ahead until the road finally dead-ends at the trailhead parking lot. The trail follows Porters Creek for most of the way, and as you can see from the sign it is one of the many trails leading to the summit of Mt. LeConte.
Porters Creek
Porters Creek Trail footbridge
The first mile of the trail is a well maintained jeep road with an easy walking grade. Along the way are many opportunities to slow you down. Watch to the right for many signs of pioneer homesteads. There are rock walls, chimneys, house foundations, and even a primitive cemetery. These echoes of early settler life in the Smoky Mountains testify to the harsh realities of scraping a life out of rugged and isolated terrain.
Rock wall remnant from pioneer days
Rock steps from pioneer homestead
Smoky Mountain cemetery
In April the Porters Creek Trail becomes one of the the best wildflower hikes in the Smokies.
White Trillium
For a nice two-mile round-trip hike, continue on up the trail and bear to the right when the jeep road enters a turnaround. At this point you can take a short side-trail over to visit a small group of log buildings, including the John Messer barn, which was built around 1875, and the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club cabin, which was constructed from 1934-36.
John Messer Barn
Smoky Mountain Hiking Club cabin
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 of the pioneers that remains within the wood. The example above is a classic dove-tail joint used to stack the log walls and keep them tight. The cabin is one you can see in the Cades Cove area of the Park.
The two images below are from cabins at the Mountain Farm Museum near the Cherokee entrance to the Smokies. Notice the nifty crude hinges made from horse-shoes on the barn door in the lower right image.
The final two pictures below are from the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club cabin on the Porters Creek Trail in the Greenbrier Section of the Park. The first image shows another example of a dovetail joint.
Smoky Mountain Moonrise
Smoky Mountain Moonrise is the most recent addition to the William Britten Gallery. This picture was taken east of Gatlinburg in the Glades area. It is actually a location that I pass every day because it is on the street where I live. Many of my images of Mt. LeConte are taken from this vantage point.
This was early November with the fall leaves past their peak in the lower elevations, and completely gone from the higher elevations. An early snowfall gave just a dusting to the upper parts of Mt. LeConte. It’s late in the afternoon, with the last rays of sunlight striking the mountain, creating a glow on the leaves. Driving home, I saw this image and quickly grabbed the camera and tripod before the light faded. I took several images, and kept waiting for the clouds to clear out. But what appeared at first to be passing clouds was actually condensation, as the sun-warmed air hit the cold, snowy mountain.
Smoky Mountain Moonrise is offered in all sizes, including the largest 20×30. Details of sizes and pricing can be found on at the bottom of the Gatlinburg Gallery page.
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 back.
Path to Serenity
Path to Serenity was taken along the trail to Spruce Flat Falls in the Tremont section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Early May is the time the Mountain Laurel bloom at this altitude. The laurel is very similar to the rhododendren that are also prevelent in the Smokies. The rhododendren tend to bloom in June and July.
For me this image has two attractions: the hillside of mountain laurel bloom, and the trail that drifts invitingly into the distance, suggesting even more relaxation and time away from the stresses of everyday life. In short, it represents why you came to the Smokies!
Path to Serenity is offered in all sizes. Details of sizes and pricing can be found on at the bottom of the Gatlinburg Gallery page.
Winter abstract in the Smoky Mountains
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 mood of these tall trees along the Ramsey Cascades Trail was like a ghostly cathedral. I was trying to capture the peace and silence, and the white glow around the whole scene. With all those upright tree trunks, I couldn’t resist the temptation to set the up for a long exposure and wave the camera vertically as the picture was taken. It takes a bunch of attempts to get something good, but the idea is with about a one second exposure to hesitate for about half that time and let the scene be captured with some amount of detail, then quickly move the camera up or down to create the dreamy, blurry, ghostly effect. Not a Photoshop trick, all done in the camera!
Here are some more from this series. Click any one to bring up a slide show, then hover your mouse over the image to go forward or back in the series.
Smoky Mountains fairyland
Ghostly winter trees
Winter trees abstract
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. If the words are hard to read, click on any image, and you should get a full size slide show. (put your mouse over the right or left side of each picture to rotate through the slide show) I’ve tried to set each of the quotations within a supportive image.
W A Britten