Fall Creek Falls State Park - Day 1

This is Fall Creek Falls in the Fall Creek Falls State Park.  We camped at the park two weekends ago.

 

This is across from the Fall Creek Falls, and I just liked the way this looked with this guy sitting there.

This is the same shot, just not zoomed in as much.  It was a really nice day out.

And zoomed in at the top of Fall Creek Falls.

So I've been wanting a picture of Mom and I together that I was happy with.  So often when kind strangers offer to take the picture, I'm just not happy with the result.  So I found my tripod, and on this trip I took it with us.  Between us in the gap in the trees is the top of Fall Creek Falls.

The other thing that having the tripod with me allowed me to do was to get (or at least try to get a shot of myself that I liked).  Unfortunately while I really like this one, I'm blocking where the falls view is.

The lighting was off though when I moved, but I still actually had fun running back and forth getting the shots.

You have to click on this one to see it larger to really see it, but I just really liked the moon in this picture.

As we left the Fall Creek Falls area I spent a little while chasing this butterfly around.  This was the best shot of him that I ended up with.

This was one of our first stops along a scenic drive they have.  It's a composite panorama shot.  This is another that you'd really have to click on to see it.

And I think this was at the same stop.  Just little flowers that were near where my mom was sitting while I took the above pictures, that I tried to get a decent shot of for her.  At some point, I really want to get a macro lens to get really good shots of things like this.

Our next stop along the scenic drive was Millikan's Overlook and Buzzard's Roost.

This was my best shot of Millikan's Overlook.  The light was starting to fade some at this point.

And this is Buzzard's Roost.  According to the sign, if you sit out here long enough, some buzzard's might come to investigate.  I just saw a pretty view though, which should be even better in a few weeks when the colors change.

I can't seem to remember the name of this falls.

I tried another couple of self portrait shots here at this falls overlook.

This was a real run back and forth as the spot on the rock was somewhere I could just barely get to before the self-timer went off.  I like the shot except the sun was really starting to go down by then, so it's a little dark.

That night by the fire, I attempted one shot of the stars with a long shutter speed.  But I didn't feel like messing with setting up the tripod so it's a bit of a moving blur.  But I still think it looks fun, and somewhat conveys our view that night.

And we ended the night with a nice fire.

My new hobby - State Parks

So my mom and I have a new hobby: going to and camping at state parks.  The pictures from this post are from two weekends ago when I went to Big Ridge State Park.  Mom didn't go with me on this one as she had hurt her knee and it was really bothering her this day.  It was a pretty park but not first on my list of ones to go back to of the ones we've been to so far.

Pretty flower (obviously)

I went on the lake trail to the park office.  This is also the trail to the Big Ridge Dam.  At some point I wouldn't mind coming back and doing the Ghost House loop trail.

More pretty flowers

A view of the lake that I bet will be really gorgeous in a few weeks when the fall colors come in.

I like to take pictures of flowers.

Along the lake trail to the dam is this cemetery.  It's a short jaunt up a small hill.

From the cemetery you can see the lake through the trees.  It's a rather pretty view.

What I really liked about this headstone was that it said she was born "ABOUT 1800".  The man who I'm guessing was her husband on the next headstone had an exact birth date.  I also just liked how the flowers looked in front of this one.

There were alot of "McCoy" graves in this cemetery.  This is just one of them,

This is actually 3 shots that I used a free software program merge into one.  I just thought it was nice looking with the fallen tree going into the lake next to it.

Pine Cones

I was really grateful to finally see the dam at this point.  I also had to decide just after this about whether to do the rest of the trail or go back.  I ended up deciding to do the rest of it, mostly because I wanted to see what the other half was like for if mom wanted to do it at some point.

And now of course for some views from the dam...

The view of the dam from the other side.  I'm really proud of this one in the way the reflection in the water turned out.

I'm really looking forward to a Wild Foods Festival that we'll be going to at Fall Creek Falls state park in late October.  I'm really hoping there will be a class on knowing what mushrooms are edible.  But these mushrooms I just thought looked cool on the end of fallen log.

More flowers

So at this point I had to get back to the car.  I decided to walk around the other side of the lake since that would be shorter (and easier) than going back on the same trail.

Another one where I really love the reflection in the lake

Part of that way back was on a small trail called the Ole Mill Trail.  I thought the sign was cute.

I wish this dragonfly picture had been in focus a little better, but I still really liked the bright blue on it.

And here of course is the "Ole Mill"...

After what was an approximately 3 mile hike, I was incredibly grateful to get back to the car.  But at some point we'll come back to this park and probably camp one night here.

Cades Cove 6-29-13

For the July 4th weekend, we decided to camp at Myrtle Beach.  So yesterday we camped at the Cades Cove campground for one night to test out the camping.  The last time my mom and I went camping, I was around 10 years old.  Here's our tent all set up at the campsite.



The test went well.  We realized there were a few more things we needed to add to the list to bring with us.  We also unexpectedly got to to test out how well the rainfly worked, and fourtunately it worked very well.

In the morning after packing up, we went for a hike on the Pine Oak Nature Trail..

 I just like the way the sun was shining through the trees here.  This was the only photo that I like that I took between the bottom of this trail and where it got to the top of the mountain (well, foothill of a mountain anyway).  It was quite a climb up to the top.  It switched back and forth around 5 times to go up to the top.

 This was the one good scenic view from the top.

 My mom at the top of the trail.

This deer made this whole rather long hike totally worth the hole thing.  The deer started out here, a little ways down the trail from us.  We stood still watching (and taking pictures), and the deer actually walked along the trail towards us.

This photo is zoomed in some, but not all that much.  The deer got to within about 15 feet of us.  Unfortunately, I had the camera on autofocus and didn't realize until afterwards that it wasn't focusing correctly.  But seeing the deer was still awesome, even if the photos were only so-so.

This was a very cook looking spider web along the trail.  This was the best photo I got of it.

Mom saw and liked these flowers as I was taking pictures of the web.  So I went back and got this one for her.

I went back to try some more with the web after that.  I really liked the way light plays off the water droplets on the web in this one.

There were around 3 of these types of bridges we had to cross on the way down the trail.  I just liked the way this one looked over its stream.

This small waterfall was cooler looking in person, but this was the best picture I got of it.

This sign is a lie!  The only way this trail is mile is maybe if you just fly up to top as a bird and straight back down.  Mom and I think the length you actually have to walk on the trail is more like at least 2 miles.  But regardless we did it.

When we were about halfway along the trail, we remembered that in this trail guidebook we have that the author rates this as a difficult trail.  He also said that it is not only a mile.  But by the time we remembered this, it was too late to not just keep going.

Here's mom coming off the trail.  She made it too (just barely).

After the trail we went on a drive around the Cades Cove Loop.

It wasn't long before we saw a stoppage that always means wildlife along the road.  This bear was sitting between two trees along with her cubs at her feet.  This is the best shot I got of her. 

But I also got this video, and towards the end of it you can see the cubs playing together.

Farther down the loop, we saw a buck in a field.  Unfortunately, by the time the car in front of us got out of the way, all I ended up getting a picture of was buck butt going into the woods.

When we drove up to the field this bear was in, she was actually standing up on her back paws.  I think she had her cubs in woods behind her.

I did take this video of her.  Sorry about the waving around, the people passing behind me were distracting at points.

So when the bear went on into the woods, I drove on further.  Not farther along, people were once again stopping and pointing.  So I got out again, and we got to see the mother bear along with her 3 cubs passing through this small field behind a barn.  I love this series of photos.  They are the best I have ever gotten of a bear in the Smokies.

 

This is the only one where you can really tell that she had 3 cubs.



This was a stream flowing along further down the loop.  The water was flowing fast but this has a bit of time lapse to it.



This is actually the other side of that same stream after it had flowed under the road.