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Smoky Mountains/Tennessee/North Carolina
This summer, the family and I took a little trip through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I've been so busy since that trip that I really haven't had a chance to take much of a look at my pictures until this past week. Here are a few shots from the first batch I have reviewed.
1. We arrived in Gatlinburg mid-afternoon after 2 days on the road. We decided to hang around town for the rest of the day. Much of Gatlinburg is junky tourist trap stuff, but we did ride the chair lift to the top of a nearby mountain. It gave us a pretty good view of the city. This was taken with my little point-n-shoot.
2. Another view of the city and the chair lift. Another from the p&s.
3. The next morning, we left our hotel in Gatlinburg and headed toward the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (just a couple of miles up the road). This was taken from an overlook along the road between Gatlinburg and Clingman's Dome near the Tennessee-North Carolina state line. A very hazy/cloudy day, but shows why they are called the "Smoky" mountains.
4. We continued on to Clingman's Dome. These next three shots were taken on the trail leading to the summit of Clingman's Dome. This one was taken at 9:15 am. Nice bright, partly cloudy day, good visibility.
5. As we walked up the trail, I noticed it getting a little greyer. I noticed clouds rolling in. This one was taken at 9:27 am. Much hazier, but still could see some nice views.
6. This one taken from the same spot as #3 just one minute later at 9:28 am. The cloud had enveloped us.
7. Made it to the top of Clingman's Dome (whew!) and this was the view:
8. I was determined that my hike up to the top would not be in vain, so we waited for a break in the clouds. This is a shot from the top of Clingman's Dome looking down toward the road we drove in on.
9. Walked back down the trail and by the time we got to the parking area, the clouds had moved off enough that we had a nice view again.
10.
11.
After we left Clingman's Dome, we drove over to Cades Cove but that is another set of pictures that I haven't gotten to yet. Unfortunately, we were there the wrong time of year and the wrong time of day to see anything spectacular. We did see one deer (with a very nice rack!) in a meadow. My daughter had her long lens out & snapped a few decent shots, but I didn't get anything (wrong side of the car, wrong lens...grrrrr......).
So....still to come....Cades Cove...drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway...sightseeing in North Carolina.
Sherry
1. We arrived in Gatlinburg mid-afternoon after 2 days on the road. We decided to hang around town for the rest of the day. Much of Gatlinburg is junky tourist trap stuff, but we did ride the chair lift to the top of a nearby mountain. It gave us a pretty good view of the city. This was taken with my little point-n-shoot.
2. Another view of the city and the chair lift. Another from the p&s.
3. The next morning, we left our hotel in Gatlinburg and headed toward the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (just a couple of miles up the road). This was taken from an overlook along the road between Gatlinburg and Clingman's Dome near the Tennessee-North Carolina state line. A very hazy/cloudy day, but shows why they are called the "Smoky" mountains.
4. We continued on to Clingman's Dome. These next three shots were taken on the trail leading to the summit of Clingman's Dome. This one was taken at 9:15 am. Nice bright, partly cloudy day, good visibility.
5. As we walked up the trail, I noticed it getting a little greyer. I noticed clouds rolling in. This one was taken at 9:27 am. Much hazier, but still could see some nice views.
6. This one taken from the same spot as #3 just one minute later at 9:28 am. The cloud had enveloped us.
7. Made it to the top of Clingman's Dome (whew!) and this was the view:
8. I was determined that my hike up to the top would not be in vain, so we waited for a break in the clouds. This is a shot from the top of Clingman's Dome looking down toward the road we drove in on.
9. Walked back down the trail and by the time we got to the parking area, the clouds had moved off enough that we had a nice view again.
10.
11.
After we left Clingman's Dome, we drove over to Cades Cove but that is another set of pictures that I haven't gotten to yet. Unfortunately, we were there the wrong time of year and the wrong time of day to see anything spectacular. We did see one deer (with a very nice rack!) in a meadow. My daughter had her long lens out & snapped a few decent shots, but I didn't get anything (wrong side of the car, wrong lens...grrrrr......).
So....still to come....Cades Cove...drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway...sightseeing in North Carolina.
Sherry
Visit my galleries at: http://psphotos.smugmug.com/ and/or http://pollettsquaredphotography.smugmug.com
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Still driving around the Great Smoky Mountain National Park:
1. There are lots of tunnels along the park roads. This shot was an 'accident' but I liked the effect a lot. I didn't like that my cap was on the dash and that I got too much of said dash. All day long I tried to re-create this look (without the car interior or my cap) every time we came to a tunnel. Alas, I never came close. Like I said, this one was an accident!
2. Somebody along the way (my daughter?? random stranger??) offered to take a picture of me and my husband together. I don't remember exactly where we were at the time. It's not even a great picture, but one of the few that I have of the two of us together anywhere. To me, it's pretty special!
3. One of the many creeks we passed along the way.
4. My daughter posing by one of the trail markers. We didn't hike these particular trails this trip as this was just a 'road trip' for the most part.
5. Another tunnel, no 'special effects' but no card dash either, lol.
6. A shot from Cade's Cove. We got there right after noon, so there really wasn't much to see. It is a very pretty area though. I would LOVE to see it in the Spring when all the wildflowers are in bloom. I hear it is spectacular.
7. This shot is very special to me. It is nowhere close to the best photo I've ever taken, BUT...it IS the very first time I ever (successfully) stitched several shots together to make a pano!! This is a 4-shot pano of Cade's Cove.
8. Two last shots from Cade's Cove. These are actually my daughter's shots. She is 16 and a 'beginner' photographer. She saved her own money to purchase a Canon Rebel dSLR.
9. Last one.
About this time, we were tired & hungry (our snacks had run out!) so we decided to head back to Gatlinburg in search of a real meal. The next morning, we headed out on the Blue Ridge parkway headed to North Carolina. Stay tuned.
Sherry
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Marcelo
Our trip continued the next morning with a drive back through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway and head in to North Carolina to visit family.
1. We stopped at the entrance sign to take a few shots...
...but basically continued on toward our destination. My husband knew I wanted to take pictures, so (without my even asking) he pulled off at EVERY overlook we passed. It was very cloudy and overcast this day, so some views are more of rain clouds than mountains. No magnificent sky... :cry
2. View of Raven Fork
3. Bunches Bald Overlook
4. I started noticing that while all a little different, the views sort of looked alike. I decided to take pictures of the marker signs so I would be able to tell the difference (and know what I took pics of).
5.
6. These flowers were everywhere--but usually enough over the drop off so that I couldn't get close.
7. Plott Balsam Overlook
8. Thunder Struck Ridge
9. Tried another 4-shot pano--this one is of Yellow Face.
10. At each pullout, I took a few pictures of the view. At the Yellow Face turn-out, when I turned around to go back to my car this was the view.
11. My husband was staring at the rock wall & said there was water running down the wall, so I went to get a closer look. I didn't get a really good shot of the water (I didn't want to change lenses, but you can see it.
12.
13.
14. Can you tell that I was starting to get tired of stopping at EVERY overlook turn off? Yes I was, but hubby pulled into each one. I started just not getting out of the car & saying "Yeah, nice, ok, move on." I decided to get out at this stop though. It was a little chilly up here, so my daughter is wearing a jacket. We had found some of the rain in the area also.
15. This was the view from this location:
16. We went a pretty good way after that without stopping, but decided to stop for a view of Looking Glass Rock.
17. My daughter wanted her picture taken here. She had been most dis-interested after the first couple of stops that morning.
18. Thought the rain shower to the right of Looking Glass Rock underscored what our day had been like--nice views of clouds & rain.
19. The last place on the Blue Ridge Parkway that we stopped to view.
20. Finally made it to my brother-in-law & sister-in-law's place in Brevard, NC. My daughter (blue kayak in the background) & s-i-l (red kayak) went out on the lake.
The rest of the trip includes pictures of our visits to the Biltmore Estate and the North Carolina Arboretum. Those (which include my favorites of the whole trip) I will post another day.
Sherry
http://www.moose135photography.com
I think I am ready (finally, right?) to finish this journey. I worry that I might already have too many pictures in this thread, so I will only add a few more from the rest of our trip.
We had already travelled from Texas through Arkansas & Tennessee to stay a couple of nights in Gatlinburg & days in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We left there and drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway until we hopped off near Brevard, NC and went on to my brother- & sister-in-law's place to visit with family for a few days. Most of our time in Brevard was all about the family visit, but we did make a couple of day trips. The first was to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, about an hour or so North of where we were staying. (More info about the Biltmore here: http://www.biltmore.com/visit/default.asp). This place was like visiting Versailles--huge 'house' and lots of gardens. We couldn't take pictures inside the house, so I took quite a few outside.
1. A view of the Biltmore mansion/palace from the Italian garden.
2. The Italian garden was the first of a series of gardens on the property. Lots of water lilies here.
3. Another view of the Biltmore looking out from the garden.
4. I don't think you can really tell just how big this garden is from this picture, but it was huge. We were also starting to hear some rumbling from the sky, so we didn't linger in this section very long. I would have loved to have had more time. We are standing roughly in the middle of the garden with as much behind us and in front.
5. I'm afraid the next 100+ pictures that I took are all of flowers and gardens and more flowers.... I won't bore you with all of them here, but I will post a couple. This was the second garden from the house. Each garden covered a great expanse. Like I said, it was starting to rumble so we didn't dally. My husband kept telling me I was going to get rained on if I didn't stop taking pictures and get a move on.
6. Another garden. We were trying to get to that greenhouse in the background before it started raining. I really wanted more time to stop and take pictures....
7. Too many pretty flowers....I couldn't resist....all the while being prodded to 'Hurry!' by my husband.
8. Almost to the greenhouse and it is really getting ready to rain. We are almost running, but still I stop to take a picture...
9. We made it to the greenhouse just as it started to sprinkle. Within a minute, it was really coming down outside. Unfortunately, we were going to be stuck there for a while. But alas, look at all the beautiful flowers to look at while we wait. I think I took pictures of all of them....
10. I loved the orchids...especially this deep purple one.
11. We waited so long for the rain to stop, that hubby and daughter were tired of gardens by that time. We had only made it to the first 4 gardens, but they decided that Mom had already taken enough flower pictures. We started heading back up toward the house & parking area. I stopped to take a picture of the house. This place was huge. It was hard to imagine someone actually living there at one time.
12. This was a family reunion trip after all, so I do have a shot of the whole gang (or at least the ones who were able to make it). I set the timer & ran to the back of the shot. I'm in the lavendar shirt. As usual, I try to get the family together either early in the morning or in the afternoon before it gets too late. As usual, nobody wants to do it until it is almost too dark to get it done. I only have a flash attachment on the camera (no lights), so we just had to make do.
13. Our other day trip was to the North Carolina Arboretum. No, I wasn't tired of flowers, and yes, I did take a lot more pictures of .... yep... flowers. My husband and daughter just shake their heads. I won't bore you with a bunch of different flower shots, but I will share a couple.
14. This is called a "Quilt Garden" because the flowers and beds are laid out in a quilt pattern. I could not get the whole thing in one frame because it was just too big.
15. I thought this was a cool sculpture. Just a bunch of hands reaching for the sky.
16. Well, we were about to get rained on (yet again) and we were rushing to get back to the car (yet again), but I had to stop and get this picture. I thought it was so pretty with the flower bed in the foreground and the mountains in the back.
17. After this, we packed up our stuff and headed back to Texas. We had to stop and get this picture because this was the first time my daughter had been in South Carolina.
This marks the end of this journey. If anyone really wants to see all of my favorites from this trip (warning--lots of flowers!!), then the full gallery is here: http://pollettsquaredphotography.smugmug.com/SherryShots/People/Mountains-Trip-2012/27071204_3wQxpz#!i=2368251893&k=S4QwrXs
Thanks for looking.
Sherry
It wasn't me...but I love offering to do that for people as they trade cameras back and forth or try to figure out how to get everyone in the picture. I did have to laugh once, when a guy - obviously seeing my DSLR, asked "How will you get us the picture?" "I'll give you your camera back after taking your picture..."
http://www.moose135photography.com