GSMNP Spring Awakening

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Bill

Springtime is one of my favorite seasons in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The animals are active and the trees are all dressed in bright yellow/green. It’s a fantastic time to experience the many things the park has to offer.

Beth and I spent the past two weeks up at our cabin on Hatcher Mountain and hosted several members of her family. Beth’s mom, Mae, made her second trip up there and we were so pleased to see her. Everyone had a super time but, it all came and went too quickly!

Our son, Lee Scheeler, was only able to spend a few days but, we tried to make the most of it. He and I decided to hike up to Alum Cave Bluffs. It’s just under 5 miles roundtrip but, there’s 1,125 feet of elevation to climb.

The trail starts simple enough as you cross several beautiful streams such as Walker Camp Prong and Alum Cave Creek. Large majestic old-growth trees line the way.

As we proceeded up the trail it became steeper and started to resemble scenes from Lord of the Rings.

Upon entering Arch Rock I was seriously looking around for Hobbits and Orcs. None could be seen 😉

The sun was at a bad angle as we walked by the view of Eye of the Needle but, I took a snapshot regardless. It’s one of the key landmarks along the way.

Finally, we reached our destination: Alum Cave Bluff. It’s not really a cave at all but rather a rock shelter. You can barely see Lee sitting near the lower left corner of this image,

Back in the 1800’s, minerals such as alum, epsom salt and saltpeter were mined here. During the Civil War the Confederate Army used the saltpeter from Alum Cave to produce gunpowder.

At the conclusion of our day, Lee and I thoroughly enjoyed our steaks on the grill and a relaxing soak in the hot tub back at the cabin. Ahhh!

Late April is the best time to see the wildflowers in the park. I’m not big into flowers and I don’t own a macro lens but, my sister-in-law, Barb Severance, convinced me that I needed to accompany her on a wildflower walk. We settled on the Greenbrier section of the park as our best choice and set out for Porter’s Creek Trail.

This little Purple Phacelia was just begging me to snap its picture. Meanwhile Barb is shooting flowers left and right while I’m just trying to get the hang of this flower photography thing.

Finally, I found this nice Yellow Trillium and was able to compose a reasonably good shot. Kewl!

Notice the shadow of the fern on the right leaf. Ooow. Now I’m getting cocky!

Meanwhile, I’m bent over in a contorted position trying to photograph some stupid flower when I hear a couple of guys behind me say “Hey, look at that big Chicken Snake!”. I wheel around and find this 4 foot Rat Snake about 5 feet from my feet. Yikes! Gotta get a picture of that! Why shoot flowers when you can shoot critters.

Rain was forecast for several days but, it never amounted to much. Regardless, my brother-in-law, Frank Severance, and I wanted to walk along Little River Trail beyond the Tremont Institute to shoot images of the cascades and waterfalls. He was kind enough to loan me his Big Stopper neutral density filter to try.

The Big Stopper takes away 10 stops of light so you can shoot really long exposures. It’s a bitch to use but, the results a quite interesting.

This image was my favorite of the bunch.

I finally decided that a variable neutral density filter would be better for me so I ordered one for the next trip.

Ok, now it’s time to tour Cades Cove and look for bears!

Frank met a really nice chap one day in the Cove, Rossano Giachino. He’s an Italian living in Switzerland that happened to be in the States for a business meeting and decided to visit the park. It turns out that he’s the CERN Control Center Manager for the Large Hadron Collider. When Frank told me about him my first question was “Did you ask him about the discovery of the Higgs Boson?” I was excited to meet Rossano to say the least! The discovery of the Higgs Boson is only the most important discovery in Physics over that past 50 years. Drs Peter Higgs and Francois Englert received no less than the Nobel Prize in 2013 for their work.

Well, I did get to meet Rossano and we had a nice conversation about Dr Higgs, his Boson and the Large Hadron Collider. Rossano was actually at the LHC when the Higgs Boson was found. Very cool!!! If I’m ever in Switzerland I’ve got to visit the LHC.

Rossano is also a wildlife photographer so he, Frank and I spent several days together shooting bears.

Nobody can resist the urge to see and photograph a cute baby bear.

It’s sleepy time in bearland.

Even this big male looks kinda cute when he’s snoozing.

It seems like we’re seeing Coyotes more and more often in the park. This one certainly looked healthy.

Ok, one last bear image before I close this blog post.

I love the way he’s peering around the tree and framed by the leaves.

The John Cable Mill in Cades Cove is always worthy of a little digital film.

Every visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is always special to me. We are truly blessed to have a cabin nearby so we can visit the park frequently throughout the year. The past two weeks, however, was a particularly special time. Good family, new friends and great fellowship. We had some laughs, ate good food and saw some amazing sights. I can’t wait to do it all again!

Smokies Spring Snow

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Bill

We headed back home today after spending a week at our cabin in the Smokies. Last night we got heavy rain at 1,900 feet but, up in the higher elevations they got snow.

Normally, we drive US 441 directly through the park to return home. It’s the most direct route and BY FAR the most scenic. I always check the Smokies Road Info on Twitter before leaving to make sure the road is open. Early last night it was closed. This morning it continued to be closed. Fortunately, we were late leaving and when I made my last check around 1pm the road was open. Yay!

Shortly after making the right turn onto US 441 from Little River Road we came upon a turnout and could clearly see the snow on the mountain tops. My Nikon D800 was packed away so I decided to take some snapshots with my iPhone.

Keep in mind that today is March 30th and the local weather forecast for later this week is supposed to be in the upper 70’s.

The higher we climbed up the mountains, the deeper the snow. It was one of those wet snows that clings to everything and weighs down the tree limbs.

The deep blue sky, white snow and bright afternoon sun made everything in sight just glisten.

This last shot was taken at a turnout a short distance from Newfound Gap. At this point we were at an elevation of about 5,000 feet. The snow looked to be about 6 inches deep.

I think I’m pretty safe in saying this is the last major snow we’ll see in the Smokies until next winter. It made for an absolutely beautiful ride home that was so stunning that I decided just to enjoy it rather that dragging out all of my camera gear. But, I couldn’t resist taking a few snaps with my iPhone. 🙂

Snowy Owl Irruption!

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Bill

My wife and I spent Christmas week this year in Hampton, VA visiting with her family. It’s always great to spend time with them but, it’s also fun to get out and see some of the wildlife nearby.

Just a short drive from Hampton is Huntington Park in Newport News. Within this 60 acre park there’s a little 3 acre lake, Lake Biggins. Quite often I’ve found it home to a wide variety of ducks, raptors and river otters. This is the first time I’ve seen Wood Ducks there.

Also notable were a handful of male and female Hooded Mergansers.

I rarely visit the Eastern Shore of Virginia without taking at least a day trip up to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. It’s one of my favorite birding spots and only 2 1/2 hours from Hampton.

Early winter is a particularly good time to visit because thousands of Snow Geese are migrating through the area. Here’s a few in Swans Cove Pool. That’s the Assateague Light in the distance.

They keep coming and coming!

The Snow Goose population here can range as high as 50,000. We only saw one or two thousand the day of our visit.

Chincoteague NWR is home to lots of wildlife like this Great Blue Heron that you can see pretty much any time of year that you go there. We get jaded seeing the same thing each visit so it’s nice to be surprised with something new and unusual.

My sister in law, Barb, accompanied me on this day. She struck up a conversation with a passing birder and asked her if she had seen anything notable. The answer she got was unbelievable…a Snowy Owl on the beach out near Toms Cove. Say what???

Snowy owls live way up north on the tundra above the Arctic Circle. They rarely come much further south than Canada. They are the largest (by weight) North American owl. We stopped a second birder we saw and she too confirmed the sighting and gave us a more specific area to focus our search. Without delay, we headed for the beach!

We drove as far south on the beach as is possible without an off-road permit. I parked the car, got out and scanned the beach with binoculars. Within moments I spotted the owl on the ocean side of the beach. We grabbed our cameras and tripods and found a nice position with decent light on the bird. Wow…just WOW!

We couldn’t decide if it was an adult female or an immature male. Hard to say.

It didn’t seem to be stressed at our presence so each time it looked away I would inch a bit closer. We observed it there for about 10 minutes.

Without warning it jumped up and flew several yards to the Toms Cove side of the beach. Naturally, we had to follow…

We set up our gear in the new location and began snapping pictures as fast as we could. These birds are a very bright white so I used spot metering to keep from blowing out the white. Nikon didn’t let me down.

When birds such as the Snowy Owl venture far beyond their normal migration area it’s called an “irruption”. Evidently, this winter is turning out to be an incredible and perhaps historic Snowy Owl irruption.

After shooting the Snowy for nearly 45 minutes I happened to look behind me. Barb and I were no longer alone with “our” owl. Several other photographers with big glass had suddenly appeared. We had all the images we wanted so we quietly slipped away.

Absolutely amazing! We couldn’t believe what we had just seen. Not in our wildest dreams could we have imagined seeing a Snowy Owl at Chincoteague… much less being able to get as close as we did. We ate our lunch and were ready to go home. The afternoon couldn’t possibly compare to the morning we had just had.

Fall in the Smokies

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Bill

The fall colors in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park seemed to peak a little late this year. Maybe it was caused by the wet spring and summer. Maybe it was caused by the idiotic shutdown of the National Parks due to our inept government. Who knows?

We were starting to wonder if we would get good colors. All of a sudden from October 29 to 31 the leaves became vivid and bright. Around the first of November a relatively strong storm swept through the mountains bringing high winds and most of the color was gone. If you blinked, you missed it. Lucky for me I was in the Smokies during that whole period and had a camera.

Our cabin sits on a ridge atop Hatcher Mountain above Wears Valley, TN. It’s only six miles from the National Park and about the same altitude as Cades Cove. The ridge across from us looked like a patchwork quilt.

What a place to just relax and soak in the beauty of nature. Don’t you really want to sit in one of those rocking chairs?

The little cabin and detention pond near the entrance to our subdivision was particularly colorful.

A long lost friend from high school, David Wallace, his wife, Bonnie, and dog, Rhys, paid us a delightful visit. This is David contemplating the possibility of human flight.

Little River. Just off Lamar Alexander Parkway near the Townsend entrance to the park.

Some reflections near the same location as above.

David and I decided to drive up Rich Mountain Road from Cades Cove to view the valley from above.

This is the old Methodist Church in Cades Cove as seen from partway up Rich Mountain.

We ended up parking the car at a pulloff and hiking up the Rich Mountain Loop Trail. The weather was perfect and the scenery was spectacular. Sometimes you just have to get out and put your feet on the ground to absorb the colors, smells and feel of fall.

Man, what a beautiful fall and great time in our new cabin. It’s good to be alive!

Grand Teton Landscape

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Bill

Grand Teton National Park was the final destination on our epic road trip this year. It was a fitting grand finale. In all of the places we visited our primary focus was on seeing the animals but, the scenery simply cannot be ignored.

During our week of September 22-29, the aspens were turning a vivid gold. The towering Grand Teton Mountain provides a commanding background. This image was shot near the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at Moose Junction.

Since we were travelling south into the Tetons from Yellowstone my first real view of the mountain range was at the Coulter Bay Visitor Center. Mount Moran, center, rises 12,605 feet above sea level and is home to several glaciers as you can see here.

The weather during our week was constantly changing. Most mornings were too overcast to get great sunrise shots but, the heavy clouds provided some drama nonetheless.

This was shot near the Cunningham Cabin Historic Site.

We got a couple of days of light snow as seen here near the old Cattleman’s Bridge site.

Other days were warm shirtsleeve weather like this shot around the corner at Oxbow Bend. I tried on a couple of occasions to get sunrise pictures here but, no luck. The clouds persisted in chopping off the top of Mount Moran.

No visit to the Tetons is complete without taking a drive down Antelope Flats Road and Mormon Row to see the old barns there. The peak of Grand Teton Mountain is seen here just left of the roof.

Another old barn.

This time Grand Teton is in the far right of the frame.

One of the snowy days we drove to the top of Signal Mountain. That’s Jackson Lake at the foot of the mountains. It’s by far the largest lake in the park and covers over 25,500 acres.

Another view from Signal Mountain looking northwest toward Jackson Lake.

This was also shot from Signal Mountain but, it’s an easterly view looking toward Moran Junction.

We had been shooting Moose near Gros Ventre campground and decided to drive beyond Kelly,WY and further out Gros Ventre Road.

It was a very windy day but, we found several beautiful spots along the Gros Ventre River where a hole in the clouds would open up and highlight the yellow aspens for a moment.

Lower Slide Lake is not actually in Grand Tetons NP but, it’s beautiful enough to be a park. Here again the light would come and go as holes in the heavy sky moved by.

I’ll always cherish my trip this year to the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Needles Highway, Custer State Park, Devils Tower, Yellowstone and the Tetons. It truly was a trip of a lifetime and would not have been possible without the help of several family members. I especially want to thank my brother-in-law, Frank Severence. He provided his Toyota Sequoia and did most of the driving. Here he’s telling a Teton Park Ranger which way to go.

Another heartfelt thank you must go to my sister-in-law, Barbara Severance. She provided a nice calming influence between the two alpha males in the car for those 7,000 miles. She’s also one of the best critter spotters and creative photographers around.

Our last morning in the Tetons was spent looking for Elk near Windy Point. I took a final gaze up at the beautiful mountains and captured this image as we prepared to head back east to Hampton, VA.

It was a long but fantastic trip. We saw so many wondrous sights that it’s difficult to remember them all. Good thing I took a camera and have thousands of images. I can relive the journey whenever I want to.