Smoky Mountain outting.

Last weekend my friend Steve and I had planned a trip to the UP of Michigan to photograph migrating birds of prey that gather there on their migration north.

The trip was planned, bags were packed, coolers were filled and snacks prepared.

Then Mother nature dropped 31 inches of snow in a 2 day period with another 12 predicted.

Hmmmmm.

Perhaps a different destination would be wiser, so off we went, headed south instead of north. 7 1/2 hours later we found ourselves outside Smoky Mountain National Park looking for a room for the night.

We happened across an area that had some hotels. We found our room and hit the sack with a 5:30 wake up call.

We headed off to find our first location. We passed this building.

I had to shoot it.



We stopped at a visitors center, hoping for a map of the park and some insider info on wildflowers and such. A kind gentleman gave us directions to some waterfalls, and a meadow that would probably be blooming nicely.

We proceeded nicely for 40 minutes before we realized that we had missed our turn. Rather than turn around, we planned to come back this way tomorrow and hit these locations, for now we would head on over the mountains towards Cherokee, shooting what we came across.

We stopped at a small runoff stream cascading down the mountain for some shots.





We went farther down and found a larger stream with some cascadeds. The stream was sorrounded by rohdadendrons, and will really be beautiful when they bloom. For now, I thought it lacked color, but I shot it anyway.



As we passed over the top of the mountain the fog hung over the peaks. Since it was only 30 degrees the fog caused frost over the trees. As it lifted the frost painted the trees white.

We attempted to photograph it but I am dissappointed with my results.



While shooting the frost, this dark eyed junco paid me a visit.



We passed this little waterfall. It was difficult to shoot because the bottom of it went under the road and you could not shoot it without getting the road in the shot.



At the bottom of the mountain there is a settler's farm you can visit. It's a charming little spot.



We spent some time here shooting the building with the mountains in the background. We also took some time shooting the bluebirds that frequented the area.



We found a room, ate some pizza and got in a little more shooting be fore crashing for the night.



In the morning it was our intention to head back to the other side of the park and shoot the waterfalls before heading back to Ohio. It turned out that a snowstorm had passed through in the night, and the roads over the mountains were all closed.

We had to detour way around which added three hours to the trip. We decided that it was too far and headed home instead.

The weather fought us all the way this weekend, but it was an adventure anyway.

The rest of my pictures from the trip can be found HERE

Steve's can be found HERE Check out his othre galleries. He has some great stuff.

I hope you enjoyed the trip

Brian