Emerald Village Quarry Pit

During a trip up along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, a friend and I stumbled across Emerald Village.  Its a small local tourist stop just outside of Little Switzerland, NC.  The quarry pit is pretty nice to me but I'd expect it to be exceptional during peak fall colors.  Since I'll be up around here in October I'll plan to stop by again to see for myself.  If you have small children, this might be a fun place to stop to pan for gems and gold.  There is a museum and tours available.  The specific address is 331 McKinney Mine Road in Spruce Pine, NC.

Schoolhouse Falls - August 2017

Schoolhouse Falls is a great waterfall and one I had not visited yet...that is until last week.  A friend from our local camera club and I thought it would be a nice relatively easy hike of under 2.5 miles.  Easy right.  Turned out not so much.

To find Schoolhouse Falls, I'd recommend doing an internet search or reference pg. 297 in the latest edition of Kevin Adams' North Carolina Waterfalls book.  The number of trails to follow, etc. is a bit much to include here.  Generally, this waterfall is located near Lake Toxaway in western North Carolina and its pretty easy to find the trailhead.

As you may be able to tell from the photo, the waterfall is pretty open to the sky so photographing it early or late in the day or during cloudy conditions would be the best.  But it is a pretty nice waterfall. You can walk across the stream to get to the base of the waterfall to shoot from behind it.  Spray will be an issue if you get too close.

As we were finishing up shooting a local hiking club showed up.  The dozen or so hikers had a leader who looked pretty elderly as did some of its members.  After finishing my last few photos, we visited with the group for a while.  Turns out the leader was 85 and has led hikes twice a week for several years.  On another day he does trail maintenance.  Wow!  I want to be this guy when I grow up!  They invited my friend and me to hike with them to their next stop - Warden Falls.  Since it wasn't too far away, we tagged along.

So much for a day of easy hiking.  The trail quickly disappeared and turned out to be more of bushwhack through trees and rhododendrons.  And, of course, more elevation changes.  I picked the wrong day to forget my lunch.  I was last in line to cross a stream.  After changing into my water shoes and getting going, the group had disappeared down the "trail".  Of course I couldn't see any trail or the group for that matter.  Being so close to the waterfall, I couldn't hear anyone either.  So I took off bushwhacking through the brush staying close to the river, sometimes on my hands and knees.  I finally saw a some red off to the side and thought it was the group and thankfully it was.  So an easy day of hiking turned out a bit differently.  The group had taken a better path than the one I took - of course.

Warden Falls is a so-so waterfall in my opinion and I'm not sure I'd make a special trip to photograph it.  Perhaps in autumn it would be more photogenic.  But its always great to see nature's beauty and enjoy being away from the daily routine. 

A friend of mine from our local camera club took a short outing to a unique place the other day - along Interstate 26 West near Arden, NC.  There was a large patch of sunflowers along the highway.  After parking safely at a nearby rest area, we backtracked to the flowers.  Being surrounded these beautiful tall flowers is quite something and I'm 6'1".  Bees were everywhere doing their thing.  After taking numerous photos I was on my last flower and fortune showed on me.  Out of nowhere this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, our state butterfly, landed right in front of us.  It was there only momentarily so I was fortunate to get this photograph.  The flowers were already starting to fade so I'll be sure to remember it.  If you live nearby, I'd recommend marking your calendar for next late July.

Tiger Swallowtail

Tremont - June 2017

During a visit to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, a friend and I visited the Tremont area.  This area of the park has a good size stream following the road in.  In good lighting and water flow conditions, this area has numerous photo opportunities for various size cascades.  But water levels need to be right.  During a visit in mid-April the water flow was much too high since the region had a lot of rainfall.  Now, with lower rain levels the flow was much slower and less than optimum for good photographs.

But there was one location that was better than most, likely given the narrower channel in the stream.  The big plus here is that the stream falls over a large rounded rock outcropping, which I think is pretty nice.  To find this spot, take the road into the Tremont area nearly all the way to the end.  About 1/2 mile or less before you hit the end, you'll see a nice curve in the stream.  This rounded rock will be a bit right of center as you look down into this curve.  I shot this from atop a large boulder in the stream.  To get to the stream requires a scramble down the hill but farther to right side you can find somewhat of an easier path down to the stream.  If the water is flowing like is shown here, do not attempt to get into the water for a better composition.  You could easily slip and get injured.

But visit the Tremont area of the park.  It is usually not very busy, has lots of room to park, and in the right conditions offers hours of photography fun.

Blaze Azaleas on Roan Mountain Took my main hike of the season up to Roan Mountain with a good friend yesterday.  We were greeted with a prime peak of Catawba Rhododendrons and Blaze Azaleas.  There can't be a better place on earth.  No way Iceland beats this location at this time of year.  It won't last much longer so please get up if you intend to go.

For those not familiar with Roan Mountain, it is located on the North Carolina / Tennessee border, about a 40 minute drive south west of Banner Elk, NC.  You find the trailhead at Carver's Gap, which is also part of the Appalachian Trail.  From Carver's Gap, start your hike up to Round Bald. A "bald" is a grassy meadow with very few trees on top section.  Continue to Jane Bald, which is one of the favorite photo ops due to a rocky outcrop with a wonderful westerly view.  You can get some great sunset photographs under good conditions.  Continue further to the final bald, Grassy Ridge.  Throughout your hike you will see hillsides covered with purple and orange flowers.  The sight is spectacular. 

In all, the roundtrip hike is about 8 miles or so.  While not a overly strenuous hike, it will give you a workout especially if you're carrying photo equipment.  Since you'll likely want to spend all day there exploring, be sure to take plenty of water and food.  You can easily spend 12 hours on Roan Mountain.  Also, if it sunny, be sure to wear sun block. There is very little shade.  Be aware weather changes quickly up there.  On our hike we got caught in three rain showers during the day and ended the day walking the final two miles out in a heavy downpour.  If a thunderstorm arises, get off the mountain quickly as you can since this area has frequent lighting strikes and poses a high risk to hikers.

Mill Shoals Falls - North Carolina

Located on Hwy 215 at the Living Waters Ministry, Mill Shoals Falls is a nice double waterfall.  I visited there today to check out the water flow.  A couple of weeks ago during my previous visit, the flow was tremendous due to heavy rains.  But now the flow is very nice, allowing some very nice compositions using long exposures.  Since this the waterfalls are fully exposed to the sun, be sure to go very early or late or under heavy cloud cover.  Don't forget the visit Bird Rock Falls during your stop.  The trail is right off the little trail down to Mill Shoals.  If you go and the rocks are wet, be extremely careful as the rocks are as slick as ice.

Eastatoe Falls - Rosman, NC

About 30 minutes south from Mill Shoals Falls you can easily get to Eastatoe Falls.  This is one of my personal favorite waterfalls in North Carolina.  Water flow here was excellent since rain has tapered off.  This waterfall allows a seemingly endless number of compositions.  So now would be a good time to visit Eastatoe.  Hopefully, rain will maintain the current flow.

Blooms with a view

The Catawba Rhododendrons near Craggy Gardens on the Blue Ridge Parkway are in full bloom.  A friend and I visited the area today and were somewhat surprised how many blooms there were.  At the Craggy Pinnacle Trail, the blooms are just starting to come out but we did find some nice ones on the trail for isolated photos.  We proceeded north and then found many mature blooms.  Near Mt. Mitchell the blooms were still pretty full but we did notice some plants were just starting to bud out.  They need another 3-4 days.  If you want to enjoy the blooms, head up there soon or you may miss them.  Happy shooting!

East Fork Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway - May 2017

Got up today and headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Graveyard Fields.  I had heard that the rhododendrons were blooming up there.  Sure enough, they were.  But unlike the Craggy Garden area, compositions with mountains views with  rhododendrons in the foreground are very limited.  I was fortunate to find this photo op at the East Fork Overlook - elevation 4955 feet.  This is one of my favorite times to visit the Parkway.  The other is autumn.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Rhododendron at East Fork Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Near Walker Falls  

A friend and I headed out to see Walker Falls yesterday which is located about 10 miles outside of Barnardsville, NC.  Due to very heavy overnight rains, we found many normally dry runoff streams which had become beautiful cascades of flowing water.  As we drove along FR474, they were everywhere offering us numerous photo opportunities.  Here is another one.  One missed photo opportunity was when a small black bear ran across the road as we approached.  

Near Walker Falls II

Unless it continues to rain, these streams won't be running this hard for much longer.  If you want to have a great time shooting in this area, I wouldn't wait too long.  As for Walker Falls itself, we didn't have much luck. While its a beautiful waterfall I don't think its a wonderful photo opportunity unless you have perfect conditions.  Since there was a breeze the tree limbs in front of the falls had leaves that would be blowing.  I didn't see a way of using Photoshop layer masks to blend two exposures so we let this time pass.  We had fun just shooting all the wonderful cascades in the area.

Craggy Garden Report (May 25, 2017)

After leaving Barnardsville, we headed up to Mt. Mitchell and Craggy Gardens to see how the rhododendron blooms were progressing.  We saw full blooms in the lower elevations north of Mt. Mitchell.  But we gained in elevation the blooms were still in their buds.  Between Mt. Mitchell and Craggy there were some buds that were just beginning to break out but nothing major.  I plan to revisit the area late next week to check on the bloom progress and will report what I find.  Have a great weekend.

This afternoon (5/21), I took a quick scouting trip north on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Craggy Gardens.  I thought the blooms may be a bit early due to the relatively mild winter.  Sure enough, at the Craggy Garden Visitor Center, I saw a few full blooms and several more ready to pop.  However, just a bit further north at the Craggy Pinnacle Trail, the blooms were all in their buds.  I'm thinking about another 7-10 days and they should be good.  Roan Mountain blooms won't be far away.  I love this time of year!!

Cascade at Boone Fork Overlook Bridge

While in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, I headed south on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Boone Fork Overlook.  With the recent rains, I thought that the Wilson Creek would be flowing well under the bridge on the Tanawah Trail.  Unfortunately it was not, it was quite weak.  However, I did take this photo off the far end of the bridge and caught this nice little cascade.