Tag Archive: Cades Cove

Favorite Trails: Abrams Falls

Smoky Mountains photos: Abrams Falls

The trail to Abrams Falls is one of the most popular Smoky Mountains hikes. Get to the parking area at the western edge of Cades Cove early, and enjoy this easy-going hike before the crowds arrive! Abrams Creek and the waterfall are named after Chief Abram, leader of the Cherokees who lived at Chilhowee Village,…

Spiritual Sunday: Cades Cove Meditation

Spiritual Light in Cades Cove

It’s a Spiritual Sunday in late April, and today we’re just out for a walk and stopping for a meditation on the beauty of a spring day in Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains. Most people who come to the Smokies pay a visit to Cades Cove, and for good reason … it may be…

Featured Photo: Dogwood Home

Dogwood Home

Dogwood Home is a featured photo at the William Britten Gallery. It is offered in all sizes up to 20×30. Details of sizes and prices can be found on the How to Buy page. The dogwood blooms were especially pretty in the Cades Cove area of the Smoky Mountains during the spring of 2012 when…

Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: Gay Wings

Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: Gay Wings

Gay Wings (Polygala paucifolia) is a perennial herb in the Milkwort family. The Greek name “Polygala” means much milk, and refers to the belief that eating these plants would increase the production of milk in nursing mothers and livestock. The two petals of the flower give the appearance of a bird in flight. Other common…

Springtime on Sparks Lane

Sparks Lane in Cades Cove

It’s a glorious springtime in Cades Cove. The dogwood blooms have come early, and the Smoky Mountains are dressed in their spring finery. There are opportunities for Smoky Mountains photos everywhere you look. The pictures on this page were taken along Sparks Lane, the first cut-through in Cades Cove. Early in the morning, soon after the…

Wordless Wednesday: Spring Green on Hyatt Lane

Spring Green on Hyatt Lane

Tracking a Bear is Not Easy

Smoky Mtns Black Bear

Brian Shults and I met up in Cades Cove again this week.  We found this rather large male Smoky Mtns Black Bear feeding on acorns in the woods. The two of us circled round and round this guy while he ate his lunch, but it was nearly impossible to get him to strike a photogenic…

Cades Cove: the Tipton Place

Tipton Place © William Britten use with permission only

William “Fighting Billy” Tipton was Revolutionary War veteran and the first of the Tipton clan to acquire land in the Smoky Mountains. This was in the 1820s under Tennessee’s Land Grant program. Colonel Hamp Tipton, a veteran of the Civil War, built the two story cabin above in the early 1870s. Miss Lucy and Miss…

End of Summer

Hearing the sound of summer's end

It seems like every year as we move from August to September, all the signs suddenly point to the end of summer.  In these Smoky Mountains photos of buck deer in Cades Cove, you can almost feel what they feel.  The easy days are slipping away … the days of fattening up on lush grass…

Early Morning Walk in Cades Cove

Cades Cove Sunrise

Today is my wife, Sarah’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Sarah! Last week we got up very early … before 5am … and drove over to Cades Cove to walk along the Loop Rd as the sun came up. It was one of the days when the loop is closed to car traffic until 10am, which makes…

Wordless Wednesday: Fence Jumping!

Fence jumping in Cades Cove

The Deer Whisperer

Old buck in Cades Cove

Some of the best Smoky Mountains photos of deer and bear that I have seen are those of photographer Brian Shults. I’d been wanting to meet up with Brian to get some tips on wildlife photography, which is a specialty requiring a whole different strategy than what I’m used to. But even though we both…

Wordless Wednesday: Gentle Day in the Cove

Cades Cove Summer Morning

Sunflowers of Cades Cove

Woodland Sunflower © William Britten use with permission only

The sunflowers family is a big one, with 20 species known to inhabit Tennessee, and 7 of those found within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On a tour of the Cades Cove Loop Road, you will see many of these. Early one morning recently, I made the loop, stopping constantly to investigate yet another…

A Wedding in the Cove

Robert and Julia

I don’t normally do weddings, or even portraits. But a few weeks ago Julia contacted me, saying that her fiance Robert was returning from duty in Afghanistan and they would be married in Cades Cove.  She liked my Smoky Mountain landscapes and asked if I could take some photos like the ones on my web…

Wordless Wednesday: Early Morning in Cades Cove

Cades-Cove-Morning-with-Fence

Featured Photo: Cades Cove Morning

Cades Cove Morning © William Britten use with permission only

Cades Cove Morning is a fairly new addition to the William Britten Gallery, taken from Hyatt Lane in the Cades Cove section of the Smoky Mountains. This photo was taken just after 7:00, when the morning was bathed in a golden, syrupy light, and the mist still lingering on the valley floor. This photo draws…

Wordless Wednesday: Cades Cove State of Mind

Smoky-Mountains-Morning

Wordless Wednesday: Silent Solitude

Shields Cabin Summer Morning © William Britten use with permission only

Smoky Mountains History: John Oliver Lodge and Abrams Falls

Smoky Mountains Hiking Club at John Oliver Lodge 1930

The photo above was taken by Dutch Roth on a trip with the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. The group is shown in front of the John Oliver Lodge in Cades Cove.  Oliver was one of the last residents of Cades Cove to give up his land to the new National Park, fighting all the way…

Free Wallpaper: Spring Morning in Cades Cove

Cades Cove Morning

It’s time for another free Smoky Mountains wallpaper!  This is early morning on a misty spring morning in Cades Cove. So peaceful, the day just getting started, full of promise. This photo, and all other Smoky Mountains wallpaper, can be downloaded from http://williambritten.com/wallpaper/ Just click on the file name “Cades-Cove-Morning-Wall.jpg” and then once the large image…

Can’t Get Too Much of the Cove

Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains

Can a person ever get too much Cades Cove or Smoky Mountains? No need to answer … I find myself drawn back these days over and over to see what’s happening. Mostly it’s been all about pictures of deer this winter … the bucks and the does. Today it’s just the boundless serenity of the…

Lots of Doe but no Bucks

Deer in Cades Cove

A few weeks ago I was roaming around Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains and found lots of deer.  More than a hundred deer. But they were all bucks. A few days ago I was back in Cades Cove and again found plenty of deer, but this time they were all female!  The doe above was…

Spring Comes to Cades Cove

Daffodils in Cades Cove

The photo above was taken this week in the Cades Cove area of the Smoky Mountains.  The calendar says it’s still winter, but these daffodils say it’s time for spring! That’s Hyatt Lane branching off the loop road in the upper part of the photo.  The large clump of daffodils is huddled around three large…

Smoky Mountains History: Fences

Split Rain Fence © William Britten use with permission only

In the days before barbed wire, the traditional fencing material in the Smoky Mountains was rails split from a rot-resistant hardwood such as chestnut or yellow locust. The fence above at John Olivers place in Cades Cove is known as a snake, worm, or zig-zag.  Sometimes the rails were just stacked up in zig-zag fashion,…

Wordless Wednesday: Winter Thaw on Hyatt Lane

Hyatt Lane in Winter © William Britten use with permission only

Miles Away on Monday: Quiet Day in the Cove

Deer grazing in Cades Cove © William Britten use with permission only

It’s a quiet and peaceful day in Cades Cove.  Winter is really special here. Plenty of time to cruise the loop road at your own pace, stopping whenever the mood strikes. In winter the deer come out by the dozens — probably over 100 of them in the central meadow on a sunny day like…

Cades Cove: Missionary Baptist Church

Missionary Baptist Church © William Britten use with permission only

In 1839 a group split from the Primitive Baptist Church to form their own congregation. The structure pictured above was built in 1915. I visited the church on a bright winter day in February when there were almost no cars on the Cades Cove loop road. As with many of the historic building in the…

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