Day 1-3: Getting Started

I've titled this blog the "first" National Forest Tour since there is certainly the possibility of doing more such tours.  While National Parks are amazing, there's also something intriguing about National Forests.  They are beautiful in their own right -- sometimes even rivaling the National Parks -- and in many cases you can free camp, which I prefer.  But, they also have established campgrounds that are typically very nice…and cheap!

Normally my travel blog posts are a day-by-day account of what I did, with a sample of images I captured.  However, I haven't had the time to do this for this trip due to the way things have unfolded.  So, I am going to group several days together at a time (and make fewer posts as a result)…my apologies for the long read, especially on this first post.  Grab a coffee (or beer) and enjoy. 

So here we go!

Day 1

If you read my blog on Ansel's transformation, you know that on this trip I now have my own, custom-built campervan.  While there are still things to be done, it is ~95% complete and “road worthy”.  My departure was delayed a few days from planned due to unforeseen problems and the fact that certain finishing elements took much longer than I expected (this is always the case, but I continue to be overly optimistic).  Consequently, my exact travel plans were in a constant state of flux.  In the end, I travelled from Midland and stayed with my niece (and god-daughter) in Cincinnati, where we had a nice dinner out (along with a couple beers, of course).

 Day 2

I hit the road early in anticipation that I might take a few shots along the way.  However, I had lots of stops: gas, additional provisions (beer!), potty breaks, etc.  In addition, I got a low tire pressure warning that I needed to address.  It turned out that I didn’t even have a tire pressure gauge, so I had to buy one of those!  I got air in my tires but was concerned that this could be a continuing issue if I had a slow leak.  I found a Harbor Freight store in Lexington, KY and bought a cheap-o tire inflator, which actually was on my list to have for Ansel.  Of course, this added extra time to my trip (luckily, though, tire pressure has not been an issue thus far).

Initially I had thought I would enter the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), my first stop, through Gatlinburg and then go to my reserved campsite in Cades Cove.  But, I had lost a fair bit of time, and when I got to Knoxville, all of a sudden the ETA jumped up.  Thinking this might be an accident or something else, I decided to go directly to Cades Cove.

Cades Cove is one of the most popular areas in the GSMNP.  It is a verdant valley between the mountains abundant with wildlife, and there is an 11 mile, one-way auto loop around the valley with several historical stops.  Turns out this is one of the most popular drives in all the National Parks. 

Once I checked in and checked out my campsite (I love my Senior Pass…only $12.50 to camp), I ventured off to the loop.  I had specific images in mind (the location was actually on a bisecting road that most visitors don’t take) and wanted to check out the exact spots first.  Well, when they say this is a popular drive, they weren’t kidding.  There were lots of people (vehicles actually), and despite the fact there are signs specially not to stop, people do anyway.  I mean, I get it.  They are with their kids, they see a deer or something, and they want to savor the moment.  But, when there are 20 cars stacked up behind up you, it's time to move along.  Tourists!  (Technically I am one too, but I’m on a mission).  At the end of the loop it was stop and go traffic, and it took over a half hour to travel just one mile!  There was actually a park ranger telling people to move along.

 

Hyatt Lane, the bisecting road on the loop where I wanted to capture an image the next morning.  Beautiful blue skies!

Another shot from Hyatt Lane.

Finally back at the campground (which I would highly recommend), I settled in, had a couple beers and cooked dinner.

Day 3

I got up early hoping there’d be a morning fog at my photo location (there was).  To my surprise people were are already lined up at 6:45 am waiting to access the loop (it’s closed from dawn to dusk).  Wow!  I queued up and waited.  Three vehicles eventually shot up to the gate, opened the gate, pulled through, and then closed the gate behind them.  Hmmm.  I’m guessing they needed  to drive the loop to ensure there are no bears (yes, this is black bear country*) or other issues on the loop.  Finally some park rangers drove up and opened the gate for the patient tourists (and me…I was about 5^th in line).  The parade had begun!  After a couple annoying delays (again, only deer), I got to my location on Hyatt Lane.  There was still fog, but the sun was now starting to come up over the mountains.  The light was changing fast, so I worked as fast as I could.  In the end, I think I got some good shots.  Yay!!

Hyatt Lane in the morning fog (this is same tree as in photo above, though from other direction)

 

A black & white image of Hyatt Lane with the morning fog.  I really like this one.

There were numerous "dewed" spider webs along the lane.  This one nestled in the fence post was particularly cool.

After shooting Cade’s Cove I headed to Gatlinburg to do the Roaring Fork Motor Trail, which is what I wanted to do the day before.  But the traffic in Gatlinburg was horrendous…tourists plus some road closure downtown.  It took me well over an hour just to get to the start of the trail.

Like Cade’s Cove, the motor trail is a single lane, one way loop.  And like Cade’s Cove, the congestion was terrible, perhaps even worse.  “Hey kids, there’s a bear.  No, it’s just a log.” Oh man, this was painful!  There were a couple places I would have liked to stop, but there was absolutely no parking.  People were parking everywhere.  I waited a couple times but no one came and left. What the heck are they doing?

There was one “must see” location, The Place of a Thousand Drips, on the loop that I was determined to see, no matter low long I had to wait. Amazingly (and this probably speaks to my interests vs. everybody else's), I had no problem parking.  Well worth the wait IMO!

The Place of a Thousand Drips.

 

Kind of an interesting tree at one of the pull-outs.

 

It was already getting late in the day by this time so I headed to my next reserved campsite, which was at the south side of the park, Smokemont.  A very nice campsite with a stream running beside it.  I wandered over to the stream and spotted a couple images so went back to the van to grab my camera and tripod.  I took a few shots, and was adjusting the ball head on my tripod for another one when I heard something snap.  Oh no, I can't tighten the ball head!  This is bad, REALLY bad.  Without the ball head (and I didn't have a spare with me), I wouldn't be able to use my tripod, which meant I wouldn't be able to take any waterfall photos, which is primarily what I was planning to do.  The trip was in jeopardy!

The only possible solutions I could think of was to either find a Walmart and buy a cheap tripod (not a very attractive solution) or order a new ball head from Amazon and have it shipped to one of their lockers in Asheville, about 90 minutes away.  I drove to the nearest town, Cherokee, NC (part of the Cherokee Nation) so I could get cell service and explore my options.  I checked Amazon, but unfortunately there were no ball heads that would ship fast enough -- most took at least 3 days.  Now what do I do?  I then wondered if by chance there was a camera store in Asheville.  Camera stores are nearly extinct these days, and even if there was one, it's unlikely they'd have a ball head.  To my surprise there was indeed a camera store in Asheville, and when I called them, and further surprised when they told me they had several ball heads to choose from.  "I'll be there first thing tomorrow morning," I told the guy!

Relieved, I headed back to the campsite.  As I approached the visitor center, there was an electronic sign that said "Elk viewing - right lane".  I noticed this earlier but didn't see any elk in the adjacent field.  Now there were lots of cars pulled  over, and I could see a huge herd in the field.  So I pulled over too and grabbed my camera.  This was a great way to cap off the stressful day!

The stream along the campsite where my ball head failed.

There were several bull elks in the field.  This one apparently was rather "randy" as I heard him bugle (yes, that's what they call it) several times as he pursued an evasive female (a cow).  Very cool!  Notice the young elk at the right.