Pages

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

A November Visit to the Smokies

As most of you know, Doug and I love the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. We try to get there twice a year, usually once in the spring and again in the fall. Our spring trip this year occurred during my one-year blogging break, so the photos from that trip haven't yet made it to the blog. They might still find their way here one of these days. But, for now, I'll share some shots captured last week, during our fall visit there.

On Monday, we awoke to drizzle and fog. It wasn't raining hard, though, so we took off to visit a few of our favorite haunts in the national park.


Foggy Scene Along Little River Road


This bridge marks the beginning of the trail.

Lynn Camp Prong Falls is a short walk up the trail.

This is a view near where we turned back to return to our vehicle.

After our hike on Middle Prong Trail, we took a drive up Newfound Gap Road to the overlook for Chimney tops. The fog grew thicker the higher up the mountain we traveled.

The sign shows what the view should have looked like.


I thought you might like to see a comparison shot, taken a couple of days later in the sunshine.

Chimney Tops


This is a shot of a tree at the Chimney Tops overlook, in the fog.


Here's the same tree a couple of days later, in the sunshine.



Here's one more picture from the foggy day:

Gatlinburg, from the Gatlinburg Overlook

More from the Smokies soon.






11 comments:

  1. Linda, this is exactly the type of place I love to take a long walk! Gorgeous and captivating!

    ReplyDelete
  2. marvelous. i see why you love it. and i like both the fall color and the fog, too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. A fun area to explore. I would like to see the spring bloom sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your header is gorgeous... Glad you made your Smokies trip this year. Even we haven't been up there this Fall. Crazy to be so close and not get there. We drove to West VA in October to see the colors --but the ones right here at home were actually prettier this year.

    Great comparisons of the Chimneys with and without fog....

    Hugs,
    Betsy

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm glad you were able to make it down here in November. Your foggy day pictures have a very haunting beauty about them. I am glad, however, that you did have some sunshine while you were here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gorgeous scenes. I can't decide which views I like better,the foggy ones or the sunny ones. Both are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You always have the most beautiful photos from your visits there. I love how the mysterious fog enhances the scenes. Well captured!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Linda - I think you'd love the Smokies. They're good for the soul!

    Tex - Sometimes people seem surprised that we keep going back to the same place, year after year. But we see something different every time. And, as my husband likes to say, the Smokies are even pretty in the rain.

    Thank you, Margaret.

    Steve - We've never been there when the mountain laurel or the rhododendron are in full bloom because we prefer to go in cooler weather. We did go in June one year, so that we could see the flaming azaleas. That was amazing. I need to see if I can find those pictures.

    Betsy - we missed the peak color season in the Smokies, but it was still pretty. I enjoyed your WV pictures. They looked pretty colorful to me!

    George - We had mostly sunshine; it was just that first day that was drizzly and foggy. But, it did add an interesting dimension to the photos.

    Thank you, Ruth. You're very kind.

    Thanks, Hilary. I rather liked the way the fog transformed those shots, too. But it was fun to go back later and see what the fog had been hiding.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wonderful photos, Linda, and I'm so glad that you were able to make it to the Smoky Mountains at this time of the year. They look beautiful wearing those charming colours and I love your pairs of photos comparing the view on the foggy and sunny day. I especially love the picture of the tree in the fog and then in the sunshine, it's an unbelievable difference.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Petra. We've been to Chimneys overlook many times, and I'm not sure I ever noticed that tree. It took the fog to draw my attention to it by blocking out all other distractions.

      Delete