Finishing the last two weeks of vacation time for 2017 with a leisurely trip to Florida and back through the Great Smoky Mountains. Hope there is enough time to do justice to all the sights along the way.
Peterborough, CA
Home Sweet Home, time for a get away.
Sand as far as the eye can see.
Gorgeous vistas along the route and many pull overs. Aim for early morning.
Short, but strenuous decent/climb down into and out of Soco Falls. There's a raised deck about 1/2 way down you can get shots from that's easy to get to, but to the bottom is tricky unless you're young and enthusiastic! ;). Also keep an eye on rain. If there hasn't been rain within the last few days, the flow is usually pretty thin.
Mingo Falls is a good choice--afternoon is best to avoid shooting into the sun.
Clingmans Dome will be less crowded in the early morning but it is generally foggy. In the afternoons it will be very crowded and you will have trouble finding a place to park. At night the Dome has produced some great Milky Way images.
Early morning you can generally find elk at the visitor center. There will be many pull offs for great photo ops between Gatlinburg and Cherokee.
Make sure you do Cade's Cove at sunrise (note that Wed & Sat it's closed to cars until 10:00AM) - it sucks driving through there in the evening with hordes of traffic. It's MUCH more fun in the AM :) Cades Cove is crowded from dusk to dawn.
So looking forward to seeing a moonbow.
Newark, Ohio, United States
Relaxing with family.
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Home Sweet Home, glad to be back.
Peterborough, CA