Fall trek to the Smoky Mountains

Porters Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Fall sunlight highlights trees near Chimney Tops

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

See more images at www.blackburnimages.com

Sunday, October 24, 2010 – Arrived in Gatlinburg late afternoon and was amazed at the traffic coming out thru Pigeon Forge and Sevierville as we were going in. I’m glad we decided to avoid the week-end as I’m sure that everywhere was packed. After settling into our condo (The Highlands on Campbell Lead Rd) I headed to the Gatlinburg overlook to see if there would be any decent light at sunset. There were some nice clouds hanging around the peak of Mount LeConte, but the sunset was a dismal gray. I did meet a fellow photographer that actual lives in the area – Gordon Brugman (www.smokymoments.com) and he advised that the best color was to be found up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Driving from Nashville we were amazed with the lack of color along I-40. This year just seems to be an “off” year for fall color!

Monday, October 25, 2010 – One thing I like about coming to the eastern time zone, especially this time of year, is that sunrise is so “late”. Official sunrise at 7:45a means I can get up at 6:30a and still make it somewhere in time for sunrise! However, this morning was a another “gray out” and so I hung around the condo and had a leisurely morning with Jamie. We headed out mid-morning as I wanted to drive up to Newfound Gap in hopes of some nice views of mountains and “smoke”. I wasn’t disappointed up at the Gap and captured several images of fog and muted fall colors on the hills. Driving “down” from the Gap towards the Oconaluftee entrance I was treated to some nice things happening around the Deep Creek trailhead. Waiting just a few minutes the whole scene (and feel) would change due to the fog moving in and out. We stopped at Mingus Mill, but most of the leaves were gone from the trees at that elevation.

We jumped on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Oconaluftee visitors center and were treated to some of the best displays of color of the whole trip. I stopped several times and photographed everything from sweeping vistas to nice patterns of colors among the different species of trees. We exited the Parkway at Soco Gap and drove Highway 19 into Cherokee, North Carolina. A quick stop to scope out Soco Falls turned into a nice surprise for photos as I was able to get some nice shots with a 11-16mm wide angle lens. We re-traced our route back over Newfound Gap back to Gatlinburg. I found some interesting light on patches of trees neat Chimney Tops as this area seemed to have a good bit of color.

I tried some long exposure shots from our condo of Gatlinburg and the surrounding mountains well after dark, but nothing came out very impressive.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 – We got up early as we had agreed to meet friends, Keith and Katherine Misegades, over at Big Creek campground for a morning hike. Of course, the morning I’m driving to be somewhere at a certain time is when the sunrise is magnificent! The sky was all kinds of pink and red as we drove thru Gatlinburg to pick up Highway 321 towards Cosby. At Cosby, we got on the Foothills Parkway and found magnificent views and lots of color. This will definitely be on the agenda for future trips with lots of possibilities for sunrise shots. We drove I-40 along the Pigeon River to the Waterville exit and parked at the Big Creek picnic area.

Keith and Katherine joined us and we hiked along Big Creek to Midnight Hole, a small waterfall with a big and deep pool. We continued on the trail into Mouse Creek Falls and spent time photographing the falls. The hike back out to the car gave me plenty of opportunities for different types of creek and fall color shots. We drove back via I-40 and the Foothills Parkway. We drove into the Porters Creek trailhead (past the Greenbrier campground) and I hiked in about a half-mile along the creek before some steady rain forced me to make a hasty retreat to the car. This is the trail where I had found lots of Spring wildflowers and the photo opportunities at this time of year didn’t disappoint me.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 – We knew rain was coming as the Midwest and west/middle Tennessee got hammered by some serious weather the day before. There had been a lot of wind during the night in Gatlinburg, but not a lot of rain (yet). After treating ourselves to breakfast out we headed to the Roaring Fork Motor Trail. We’d heard that there was nice color along the route. We hiked into Grotto Falls, but I didn’t even take my camera out of my backpack as there were lots of people and the rain had started while we were hiking back to the car. The rain continued steadily as we finished driving the trail, and were amazed at the number of cars… this is not the place to be if you are seeking solitude! We went back to the condo to dry out and decided to venture out again in mid-afternoon. Jamie wanted to drive the Little River Road and I decided to see if Cades Cove would have any decent photo ops. Again, we were amazed by the lack of leaves and color in Cades Cove. They must change earlier here. And, we were surprised by the number of cars driving the 11-mile loop. I guess everyone had the same thoughts of “getting out” after the rain stopped. We got back to the condo well after dark, and had a late supper.

Thursday, October 29, 2010 – I got up in time to catch the sunrise and once again nothing really dramatic happened. Just too many clouds to allow the first light to paint the sky with color. I did meet some more nice photographers at the Gatlinburg overlook (just down the bypass from our condo) and I enjoyed the early morning conversations. I did manage to get a couple of images with the sun just peeking over the mountain ridge and showing thru the small bound of sky between the mountains and sky. After cleaning up the condo we headed pack to Nashville and kept commenting about the lack of color (and remaining leaves) on the drive along I-40 back to Nashville.

All in all, it was another relaxing and enjoyable trip. I managed to get a few decent images and keeping thinking about some day in the future when I can do trips like this a much more frequent occurrence.