April 21
April 22
April 23
April 24
April 25
April 26
We got up about 6:15 again and headed for Pigeon Forge for breakfast. Deb had noticed the many, many pancake houses on the parkway and decided to eat at the third one we encountered on our side of the road, if it was open and there were cars in the parking lot. That wound up being the Parkway Pancake House. We were their first customers (the cars in the parking lot belonged to the employees!!!). Delicious pancakes, however. I had pecan, Deb had walnut.
We then continued to the Greenbrier entrance to the Smokies and headed straight for the parking lot for the Porter’s Creek Trail. Knowing there were several groups in the park, we thought that would increase our chances of finding a parking space... As we passed the picnic area about a mile before the trailhead, we noticed that the lot there was overflowing. I continued up the road in dread.... Turns out that the cars in the picnic area were a nature hike that decided to meet there and hike the remaining 1.3 miles to the trailhead, leaving more parking spots available at the trailhead lot. We not only found a nice parking spot (easy to get back out of), but it was also in the shade....
This was another clear, sunny day. The forecast called for increasing clouds by afternoon. Well, sort of. The sun played peek-a-boo a lot. More peek than hiding, however. The diffusers got used a lot today....
We packed our sandwiches into our backpacks and headed up the trail. Lots and lots of wildflowers along the way.
The photo on the left above shows a view of Porter's Creek Trail, leading off into the woods. The photo on the right shows some of the gorgeous dogwoods that were in bloom - these were backlit.
And lots and lots of people. At one point, the trail was wide enough to drive a truck through and the nature group was blocking the whole thing. We still had to step off the trail to get around them.... In all, we would encounter two large and two small groups on this trail today.
This particular group was not as uptight as the one in White Oak Sink, however. We were strolling through the old homestead site near the trail and one pointed out a lousewort to us - that's it to the right. To make sure we knew exactly where she was pointing, she stomped over to the rock... And here, I was just getting ready to lament that it wasn’t closer to the path....
We finally shook the nature group and had the trail to ourselves. At one point, we were near the small cemetery by the side of the trail and my bladder was talking to me. So, I crossed the cemetery (Deb was still out by the trail with some crested dwarf iris), took off the backpack, camera, hat, etc., found the toilet paper, and headed behind a bush.
About the time I got my pants unbuckled, I saw a pair of hikers enter the cemetery!!! If I could see them, they could probably see me. Tough. I finished quickly and retrieved my stuff. The other hikers looked like they hadn’t seen me at all....
Farther up the Trail, hikers coming towards us mentioned a Painted Trillium (left) that was growing on top of a rock at the edge of the trail. Of course, we had to stop and take its picture!
Once we got onto the narrower part of the trail, the wildflowers just continued to increase in density. At one point, I was sitting on the trail with the tripod arranged over me and realized I needed the diffuser. So, I got it out and it popped open, and out of my hand, flying three feet down the trail, completely out of reach. I had two choices - untangle myself from the tripod and go after it or ask Deb to retrieve it. Fortunately, she was between shots and graciously retrieved my diffuser for me (thanks, Deb!). And now, I can’t even remember which of picture was the result of that flying diffuser!!! Probably the one to the right, which is a mix of wildflowers including foamflower, wild geraniums, and yellow trillium.
We finally reached Fern Branch Falls (picture on the left), which is missing one of its branches because the water levels are so low. There were several people there, so we climbed part way up the bank to get a clearer shot. Once the others moved off, we came back down and had lunch near the trail at the foot of the Falls. The clouds mostly cooperated with this shot.
We worked our way back to the parking lot, stopping along the way for more shots. At one point, I noticed that someone had drawn an arrow in the dirt of the trail. It pointed to a patch of showy orchis (photo on the right). Of course, we had to stop and shoot them! This meant laying down on the edge of the trail, propping the camera up on the ground, breathing deeply, and pressing the shutter gently....
Back to the parking lot and the car. We drove down to where the Ramsey Cascades trailhead road branches off from the Porters Creek trailhead road. There’s a nice confluence of two streams there that’s normally really nice. However, between the low water and the bright sun, it’s impossible to shoot.
So, we continued to the picnic area, which was empty again, to use the restrooms there. Normally, I would spend the rest of the day shooting stream shots along this road, but the sunny skies make that difficult.
Instead, we headed for the Sugarlands Visitor’s Center. We arrived there about 3:30 and spent some time in the bookstore.
Continuing down Little River Road, we made our next stop at The Sinks (photo on the left). When we arrived, there was only one other car in the parking lot - quite a difference from our earlier attempt to stop here. The Sinks are really unusual - the layers of upthrust rock almost dam the river here, but the water has created a series of channels over the various rock layers, making an almost sideways waterfall. Ah, the power of water!
By the time we were ready to leave, the parking lot was full! We sat on the tailgate eating pretzels and people watching. Eventually, the really large pickup truck near us moved out and we were able to turn around and get out more easily....
Our next stops were in the Tremont area, stopping to shoot some wildflowers, stream shots, and reflections. Two of the reflection photos appear above.
We stopped along the Middle Prong of the Little River to shoot some stream shots and both got intriqued with this clump of common blue violets growing between two rocks near the edge of the stream. The photo on the left shows Deb shooting the violets. The photo on the right above shows our target.
At the prime bridge location, which is really good for stream shots, we encountered our first unfriendly photographer. He seemed almost angry about sharing the bridge with us!! At one point, he started backing up for a different viewpoint and I thought he was going to step on Deb!! The location was good (see the photo to the left), but not worth fighting over....
We got some decent shots in this area, not because the clouds had moved in, but because it was late in the day and the valley is narrow, so most of it was in shade, which helped tremendously. Just before we got to the main road through the Park, we spotted some purple phacelia (see photo to the right) along the edge of the road. We hurried over to grab some shots while the breeze was so still.
It started getting too dark, so we headed back to the Inn. As we passed Chestnut Top Trail, we could see some hikers just starting up it. I hope they weren’t going far. The sun would set in just a few minutes...
After dropping off the camera equipment and cleaning up a bit, we headed for Riverstone Family Restaurant in Townsend. Good food, but the quantities were a bit much. I had a Jack Daniels burger, eating just the meat, tomatoes, and some of the fries. Yum!