One of my favorite places in the Smoky Mountains opens today after the annual winter closure. The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a goldmine for pictures. Pioneer homesteads, amazing moss-covered boulders, waterfalls, and trails. On a typical year, I will go...
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...
A classic Smoky Mountains morning. The signature blue haze, the tops of the ridges warming with orange as the sun approaches the horizon. How many of the receding ridges can you count? Twelve or thirteen at least. Dawn comes very slowly here. You can leave...
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...
The Smoky Mountains area had a heavy rain earlier this week, so I was out poking around the next morning to see how full the creeks were. The photo above was taken just inside the Greenbrier entrance to the Park, at the place where families and children love to wade...
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....
The Smoky Mountains are starting to look Spring-like on this last day of February, and our heavy winter snows may be over for the season. I really enjoyed them ... the big Christmas Eve storm that gave us a White Christmas for the first time since we have lived in...
Here is the final winter wallpaper/screensaver of the season. Out in the Greenbrier crossing one of the bridges on the way to the Ramsey's Cascade trail. Our next wallpaper will definitely be warmer and more springlike! This image, and all other wallpapers, can be...
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...