I headed out to the northwest corner of the Smoky Mountains last week, looking for the wildflower Indian Pink. I found the flower, but also found a couple of reptiles that were not on my agenda! First, working my way up Ace Gap Trail, eyes glued to the ground to spot those tiny wildflower blooms,…
My son Justin and his friend Lili are visiting this week from Bogotá, Colombia. You may remember Justin’s birthday photos last December. We’ve been giving them a big dose of Smoky Mountains hiking this week, and so far we have 9 bear sightings! One on the road to Clingman’s Dome and 8 more, including 6 little…
The guinea hens above were relaxing on a bridge just outside the Big Creek entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I stopped to take their picture, and listening to their distinctive guinea hen cackling, I remembered raising some of these crazy birds back in the 1970s. I had a farm in West Virginia,…
This morning, out walking the usual loop through the deserted development behind my cabin, suddenly there are big, muddy bear tracks crossing the road! There is a mud-hole from recent rains beside the road that he plowed through to get his muddy feet. The boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is less than…
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park began a program of releasing elk into the Park in 2001. Elk were once native to the eastern forests, but they disappeared in the early 1800s, victim of over-hunting and loss of habitat. The best place to view the elk herd is in the Cataloochee Valley. The elk above…
It’s that beautiful time of year again when the Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) bloom along the trails and in the woods of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Mountain Laurel are similar to, and often mistaken for, Rhododendron. In the Smokies the Laurel bloom primarily during May, while the Rhododendron come along in June…
I was headed down the Newfound Gap Road towards Gatlinburg yesterday after scoping out the wildflowers on the Cove Hardwoods Trail. Suddenly there’s a commotion with cars stopped, people gawking. Usually this means one thing: bears. So I dutifully pulled over, and sure enough there was a genuine Smoky Mountain black bear fast asleep up…
I came across these two male wild turkeys yesterday morning, just wandering along beside the road without a care in the world. Luckily my camera was in the seat beside me, so I rolled down the window and got their picture. Of all the wildlife in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it is wild…
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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