As predicted, fall colors are definitely VERY late this year. The Great Smoky Mountains, that normally would peak sometime between mid-October and the end of the month, are easily another 1-2 weeks away from peak. Nonetheless, there is no shortage of subject matter in the park to occupy a nature photographer. It is simply a beautiful place. Being the middle of the week, I thought there might be less people than there was, but it was actually quite crowded. The park is big enough to find many places of solitude though.
Other than the general lack of fall color. the trip was filled with couple detriments that turned into benefits. The first being a lot of rain. Not really any major downpours, but a constant light rain. It made for some pretty soggy conditions, and generally very low light. However, the rain also created some beautiful mist in the woods, nice saturated colors where they existed, and stream-side rocks were all wet and covered with leaves. It also gave a lot of life to waterfalls that were running fairly slow due to a abnormally dry fall season.
The second detriment was a short snow/ice storm that hit the mountains. This caused the park to close the major road running through the center of the park from North to South – Newfound Gap Road. This eliminated access to many spots for sunrise shooting and general grand overlooks, and required a bit more strategic thinking on where to stay for the night. However, the sun did return, making the roads safe to travel and the park opened it up again mid-day on Wednesday. The snow and ice disappeared from the roads, but it remained stuck to many pine trees, wrapping them in a thick blanket of white. The scenes were simply breathtaking. It also made for a wonderful contrast to the colors that did exist and some particularly interesting images. (Check the gallery within the next week or so as I make it through the editing process)
Fall Color Trip 2005 didn’t have a lot of color to it (with the exception of isolated locations as in the image below) – but was still filled with a lot of images and conditions that might not have been possible any other time of the year.
