Soco Falls - 4 images

WaterfallRich

I cruised the southern portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway today looking for fall color, but found very little :cry The 'experts' say the color is a week or so behind schedule. When I got to the exit for Maggie Valley and Cherokee, I said to heck with the leaf peepin' and decided to pay another visit to Soco Falls. The falls are actually quite beautiful - 2 waterfalls side by side flowing into one creek. The tallest of the 2 is about 35' high. Unfortunately, humans built a road next the waterfalls and very stupid humans decided it was a good idea to throw trash over the bank down towards these beautiful waterfalls.

Bad stupid humans :whip

Anyhow, the scramble path down to the base of the falls is very steep. The first decent view I had was from the steep bank - looking at the tallest falls.



All along the bank near close to the creek is a nasty plant called stinging nettle. It had real tiny prickly things and sting and itch - worst of all it was almost dead and looks bad in the picture.

I headed down to creek level for better view - sans nettle. This was a little better, but I was running out of time. The sun was coming above the mountain and getting ready to shine over the top of the bigger falls.



A quick vertical from the same place.



There's a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time. On the way back up the bank, I was very near the same spot I took the 1st picture from when the sun broke through the trees and into the mist. I was able to snap off a few before the beams disappeared.



Thanks for looking! Shot with a Sony 717 and polarizer.

annnna8888

Rich, that last photo is gorgeous! In this case, it's really about capturing the right light. Those sun beams and the mist make the pic. And I know what you mean when you talk about being in the right place at the right time. We should just hope it happens to us more often. :

Thanks for showing us these pics!

Ana

iceman17

Great work on these Rich.Looks like you got the timing just right....ice

Higgmeister

Beautiful shots Rich. I especially like the 2nd one; the way the water wraps around the picture going in many different directions. Very interesting.

Thanks for sharing,
Chris

Jnichols

The last is beautiful - I love the light captured.

Nikolai

Rich,
Glad to see you're back in action:-)
I like the last shot a lot, even though a sky is a bit blown out:-).
But the sun rays are awesome!
Cheers!

WaterfallRich

Thanks for the kind comments everyone!