The week 11 tallies are in. The Photo of the Week with the most hits, likes, shares and/or comments is Wildlife at Oliver Mills (feral kitten) with a total of 31 points.
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Monday, March 10 and I awoke to another snow storm. The snow was melting over the weekend and all but the snow piles were gone. Dirt and ground was snow free.
I sighed and went about my morning routine resigned to taking more pictures of snow but then it stopped and a weak sun tried to peak out. A little later I looked out and that new snow was gone! All melted away even if clouds had won out over the sun.
Determined to find something other than snow for my project 365 challenge I grabbed the camera and set off.
Everyone says how pretty spring is but not this early. It’s pretty depressing. the snow banks that are left are dirty. Trash lines the sides of the roads where it’s dropped out of the melting snow.
Trees aren’t green yet and with no sun everything is dull.
Eventually I found myself at the herring run at Oliver Mills in Middleboro. A gaggle of Canada Geese were browsing the hill above the river. Two pairs of ducks were swimming below the fish ladder.
Other than that it was quiet. I was struck by how different it looks when there are not trees to block the view.
I took a small road that runs above the site to try capturing the views that are normally blocked.
As I was snap-snapping away a movement caught my attention. It was a gray kitten and he was running like his life depended on it. Probably does most of the time but not from me.
Then I saw this little black spot. I looked closer and realized there was another kitten, a little black one, and he was staring at me as if to say I dare you to come closer. Of course I had to try. I inched my way a half step at a time. Slowly I got close enough to photograph him. He was still staring at me.
At that point a big delivery truck rumbled past and I looked away to step out of it’s path. After the truck went by I looked back and the kitten was gone.
I went back to the car and sat for a bit to see if either of them would come back. I didn’t see them again but my patience was rewarded by my first sighting of the year of a great blue heron. Spring must be on the way!
I touched on this yesterday in my post about Cade’s Cove. When all the moonshine and whiskey, train rides and Dollywood are said and done, the real reason I want to go to Gatlinburg is the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
The Park Services page turned out to be an awesome resource for planning my visit. Since I’ve been struggling with arthritis and recovering from my spill in San Diego, I don’t know how much stamina I’ll have for hikes. I hope to be able to do some but it’s too soon to tell. My right hip still acts up quite a lot. Just in case hiking is not an option the website lists the auto tours.
An auto tour of the park offers a chance to see panoramic vistas, cascading mountain rivers, weathered historic buildings, and majestic forests stretching to the horizon.
We know there’s one though Cades Cove but there’s a whole list of others:
In addition, the book Smokies Road Guide covers main thoroughfares and scenic backroads in the park. This book and the self-guiding auto tour booklets listed above are available at park visitor centers and online. Self-guiding tour booklets are also available from dispensers at the start of the roads they cover.
I have my National Parks Pass and my “Passport books” to get stamps but there’s no entrance fee to the park anyway! Yup one of the most visited parks in the US is free.
I’m heading to the park in the spring. Anytime is beautiful in this park but the Great Smokey National Park is knick named the Wildflower National Park. Spring and summer are renown for spectacular displays of wildflowers along roads and trails.
And along with the wildflowers are wildlife. The Site offers tips for wildlife viewing. Some are standard like view early or late in the day but I especially liked this advice: Viewing wildlife in the Smokies can be challenging because most of the park is covered by dense forest. Open areas like Cataloochee and Cades Cove offer some of the best opportunities to see white-tailed deer, black bear, raccoon, turkeys, woodchucks, and other animals. The narrow, winding road of Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail encourages motorists to travel at a leisurely pace and sometimes yields sightings of bear and other wildlife.
I’m so ready to go check this out! I’m polishing and cleaning the camera, lenses and filter. I hope I can get some photos that come close to the beautiful ones I get to see when I search online.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains , part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain.
There are loads of hiking trails from short and easy to long and difficult but they also have loop roads that allow automotive sight seeing. One of the most popular and certainly on my list is Cades Cove, a broad, verdant valley surrounded by mountains and is one of the most popular destinations in the Great Smokies. It offers some of the best opportunities for wildlife viewing in the park. Large numbers of white-tailed deer are frequently seen, and sightings of black bear, coyote, ground hog, turkey, raccoon, skunk, and other animals are also possible.
For hundreds of years Cherokee Indians hunted in Cades Cove but archeologists have found no evidence of major settlements. The first Europeans settled in the cove sometime between 1818 and 1821. By 1830 the population of the area had already swelled to 271. Cades Cove offers the widest variety of historic buildings of any area in the national park. Scattered along the loop road are three churches, a working grist mill, barns, log houses, and many other faithfully restored eighteenth and nineteenth century structures.
An 11-mile, one-way loop road circles the cove, offering motorists the opportunity to sightsee at a leisurely pace. Allow at least two to four hours to tour Cades Cove, longer if you walk some of the area’s trails.
A visitor center (open daily), restrooms, and the Cable Mill historic area are located half-way around the loop road.
Numerous trails originate in the cove, including the five-mile roundtrip trail to Abrams Falls and the short Cades Cove Nature Trail. Longer hikes to Thunderhead Mountain and Rocky Top (made famous by the popular song) also begin in the cove.
I think it’s obvious why this is number one on my list when it comes to the sights to see in the Great Smokey Mountains! ( warning earworm alert)
Rocky Top you’ll always be
Home sweet home to me
Good Ole Rocky Top
Rocky Top Tennessee
(Excerpted from Trip Advisor)
The week 10 tallies are in. The Photo of the Week with the most hits, likes, shares and/or comments is Do You Like It in a Box? with a total of 30 points.
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