Hey Folks, still pouring over all my shots from last weekend in the Smokies. It was great to see a few familiar faces while out shooting. I ran into Thomas Biggs (Southeastern Kentucky)while in Cades Cove and another new face Darren Shelton from East Tennessee. Great to see you guys and share a few pull offs while dodging all the traffic.
Last Friday started off with heavy overcast and dull colors in Cades Cove. There were a few bright spots around some of the historic structures but they were far and few. The deer, bear and turkey were out if you could catch them before bubba in his red shirt started to chase them across the field. That just kills me...
If you are looking for Color you needed to do some homework. I found lots on the back side of the Smokies. In particular on Parsons Branch Road was nice. Hwy 129 (Dragons Tail) all the way into Fontana Village. Saturday Morn we headed over to Cherohala Skyway and found some fantastic overlooks ie: (Hooper Cove overlook)& (Unicoi Crest overlook) were my favorites. Make note of these for next year for sure. The beauty of this area is there is NOT the people and traffic that one experiences in the the Smokies. The other benefit I found is that most creeks were FULL of water with beautiful canopy of color. Citico Creek was one of my favorites.
Sunday we headed back out of Fonatana Village via hwy 129 through Deals Gap (318 curves in 11 miles) then caught Foothills Pky back into Townsend. From Townsend we slowly made our way through Wears Valley-Pigeonforge madness..then took a backroad over to hwy 321 to Greenbriar. Even though Greenbriar was very crowded and the first 3 miles in was dead...we arrived to the Ramsey Creek area and found some wonderful color over the creek.
When clear skies and bright sunshine just about forced us to leave the area dissapointed ....I looked up and found some fireworks in the sky. WOW ... when all else fails on days like this just look up and you may be rewarded as we were before leaving the Fall of 2011.
I will leave you with just a couple of parting shots from Sunday afternoon.
Feel free to share some of your thoughts and comments.
Here is another one....Giant Popular reaching into the sky.
If you like these please check out the rest at a much higher resolution and quality here:
Just click on my website link and goto (Most Recent Journey - Smokies Fall Color 2011)
Thanks,
Harold
Posted by Bruce Painter on October 26, 2011 at 2:07 AM
Harold both shots are nice but I'm all over the second one.
You did not mention Little River rd or Tremont. If you went to either what are the conditions there. Are they past peak or not there yet. I may be headed up on Thursday.
Thanks Bruce!
Drove up Tremont 4-5 miles and there was NO color over the creek. Did not make it all the way to the turn around because the drive up was so dead. Just made a judgement call and turned around. There may have been color if one parked at gate and hiked up but I did not get any phone messages telling me to hit Tremont like i have in the past.
Another area i did not make it to was Straight Fork Creek behind Cherokee. You can look it up on internet. You can drive in from Asheville on the Blue ridge Parkway and 10 miles out from the end of the BRP at Black Baslam Mtn overlook, you can take a 15 mile primitive road down from parkway down into the Smokies. It has always been a beautiful drive in the Spring and you would follow the headwaters of Straight Fork and Ravenfork Creeks.
Might be worth a try, Good Luck!
Harold
Posted by Thomas Biggs on October 26, 2011 at 9:55 AM
I'll add a couple to this thread :) It was great shooting with Harold, good stuff in the Cove that morning! I left Harold and drove all the way to the end of the road at Tremont. No color to speak of until you got the the end, I'd bet it's gone today though
Posted by Thomas Biggs on October 26, 2011 at 9:57 AM
Also found some shootable color around Roaring Fork Saturday evening. Up around the Ramsey Cascade trail head was some nice color Saturday morning, it may still be good.
Posted by Bruce Painter on October 28, 2011 at 9:26 PM
Went to Tremont yesterday evening and shot the spot Thomas posted though the foreground branch had lost most of it's leaves. There was decent color on the left just past the second bridge good for more intimate shots. I went past and when I came back there were two other photographers there. I went back this morning. I was hoping for fog on the water but no dice. Shot the spot above bridge 2. Then headed to the cove again hoping for fog. Started to pour rain about the time I got there. Went out Rich Mountain Rd. Some good color going up out of the cove then a little less so from just past the overlook on out. Most of what I was seeing was again more intimate shots and the rain was really moving the leaves so no shots. May try again tomorrow along with checking out some other spots.
Thanks Bruce!
Drove up Tremont 4-5 miles and there was NO color over the creek. Did not make it all the way to the turn around because the drive up was so dead. Just made a judgement call and turned around. There may have been color if one parked at gate and hiked up but I did not get any phone messages telling me to hit Tremont like i have in the past.
Another area i did not make it to was Straight Fork Creek behind Cherokee. You can look it up on internet. You can drive in from Asheville on the Blue ridge Parkway and 10 miles out from the end of the BRP at Black Baslam Mtn overlook, you can take a 15 mile primitive road down from parkway down into the Smokies. It has always been a beautiful drive in the Spring and you would follow the headwaters of Straight Fork and Ravenfork Creeks.
Discussion
7 repliesLast Friday started off with heavy overcast and dull colors in Cades Cove. There were a few bright spots around some of the historic structures but they were far and few. The deer, bear and turkey were out if you could catch them before bubba in his red shirt started to chase them across the field. That just kills me...
If you are looking for Color you needed to do some homework. I found lots on the back side of the Smokies. In particular on Parsons Branch Road was nice. Hwy 129 (Dragons Tail) all the way into Fontana Village. Saturday Morn we headed over to Cherohala Skyway and found some fantastic overlooks ie: (Hooper Cove overlook)& (Unicoi Crest overlook) were my favorites. Make note of these for next year for sure. The beauty of this area is there is NOT the people and traffic that one experiences in the the Smokies. The other benefit I found is that most creeks were FULL of water with beautiful canopy of color. Citico Creek was one of my favorites.
Sunday we headed back out of Fonatana Village via hwy 129 through Deals Gap (318 curves in 11 miles)
When clear skies and bright sunshine just about forced us to leave the area dissapointed ....I looked up and found some fireworks in the sky. WOW ... when all else fails on days like this just look up and you may be rewarded as we were before leaving the Fall of 2011.
I will leave you with just a couple of parting shots from Sunday afternoon.
Feel free to share some of your thoughts and comments.
Thanks,
Harold
If you like these please check out the rest at a much higher resolution and quality here:
Just click on my website link and goto (Most Recent Journey - Smokies Fall Color 2011)
Thanks,
Harold
You did not mention Little River rd or Tremont. If you went to either what are the conditions there. Are they past peak or not there yet. I may be headed up on Thursday.
Bruce
Drove up Tremont 4-5 miles and there was NO color over the creek. Did not make it all the way to the turn around because the drive up was so dead. Just made a judgement call and turned around. There may have been color if one parked at gate and hiked up but I did not get any phone messages telling me to hit Tremont like i have in the past.
Another area i did not make it to was Straight Fork Creek behind Cherokee. You can look it up on internet. You can drive in from Asheville on the Blue ridge Parkway and 10 miles out from the end of the BRP at Black Baslam Mtn overlook, you can take a 15 mile primitive road down from parkway down into the Smokies. It has always been a beautiful drive in the Spring and you would follow the headwaters of Straight Fork and Ravenfork Creeks.
Might be worth a try, Good Luck!
Harold
Bruce
Drove up Tremont 4-5 miles and there was NO color over the creek. Did not make it all the way to the turn around because the drive up was so dead. Just made a judgement call and turned around. There may have been color if one parked at gate and hiked up but I did not get any phone messages telling me to hit Tremont like i have in the past.
Another area i did not make it to was Straight Fork Creek behind Cherokee. You can look it up on internet. You can drive in from Asheville on the Blue ridge Parkway and 10 miles out from the end of the BRP at Black Baslam Mtn overlook, you can take a 15 mile primitive road down from parkway down into the Smokies. It has always been a beautiful drive in the Spring and you would follow the headwaters of Straight Fork and Ravenfork Creeks.
Might be worth a try, Good Luck!
Harold