The Great Smokey Mountain National Park

Earlier this week we decided to explore Asheville, NC and en route, take in some of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  It was a stormy day, so not much good for hiking, but we did manage to venture out of the car a little bit.

I'm not usually one who takes pictures of signs, but the Native American Cherokee writing here was interesting to me, as the fantastic graphic.

Here you can see the characteristic "smoke" in the background hovering on the hills.  This is what gives the Smokies their name.  It is actually fog, or water vapor from the plants.

We call these gourds on posts "bird hotels."  They are seen widely throughout the southern states.

Part of an old homestead exhibit.  Later in the season there will actually be animals here.

A field of elk. The greenish tinge to the trees here is from moss.

The water was high rushing brown.

A few days later, we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway which overlooks the Smokies.  Luckily for us the road was open because the storms had passed.

This is Looking Glass Falls.  The spray from it was fresh and COLD!

On the right side of this picture you can see exposed rock.  This is where the ice forms and then becomes the waterfall as it melts.  Because of the way the light reflects on the ice it is called Looking Glass.  We could hear the waterfall from this point.