This photo is just below Rainbow Falls in North Carolina. It’s on a trail with a waterfall payoff at the end.
Daily Image
I think the word rainbow sums up those fall colors. North Carolina is famous for its autumn tones, which, as I write this, is still a couple of months away. It was nice to hike in the mountains and get a break from the humidity back home.
This is another old photo I pulled from the archives. Old images are veritable breadcrumbs leading back to forgotten details. For instance, from the picture, I recall the hike took longer than expected and, was a little more strenuous. So when we got back to the hotel, we ate pasta and dinner rolls, leaving only, …you guessed it, breadcrumbs.
This was taken a couple years back on a walk through the forest in North Carolina. It was supposed to be a short two-hour hike but ended up taking twice as long and was more difficult than we thought.
Daily Image
Apparently enough people get caught in the same mistake that the rangers and locals have formed a small rescue industry. I felt bad because it was my idea and my wife and sister-in-law were following my lead. But in the end we made it back before dark with a story to tell. We were hungry but too tired to go out so we ordered room service when we got back to the hotel.
As far as photography goes it couldn’t have been better; I’m still finding photos I had forgotten about. Coming from a flat place like Florida it was a big change to be in the mountains and hills. I think that also contributed to our misjudging of the hike, it was downhill going in and an uphill climb coming back. Florida has no hills so elevation never crossed our minds.
I just looked up the step history for the hike on my iPhone; it was 14,000 steps and the equivalent of 43 stories climbed. That may not be Mount Everest but it’s a lot of uphill walking for someone from Florida. When I’m taking pictures I get carried away and it’s probably not fair to the people I’m with.
I consider myself tech savvy yet I only learned about the iPhone step tracker about a year ago. My phone has been tracking steps for years; who knew? Now I can match it up with some of my photo hikes and see how far I walked. There are a few in there that I can recall very well. But having sore feet is a small price to pay for good pictures. And I’m sure I’ll do it again and again; only now I can check my steps for an added degree of satisfaction.
Purchase print
Its now autumn in the northern hemisphere but I’ve not yet gotten out for some fall pictures. Nevertheless I took this about a year ago in Gorges State Park North Carolina. This is in the Blue Ridge Mountains and I think it’s one of the best places to go for fall colors. I was hiking up stream along a trail towards a much larger waterfall. The trail was short but strenuous and so I kept leaving the trail to look upstream towards the big waterfalls that would mean I was finally there. It was almost as if I had a voice in my head saying “are we there yet?” over and over again. When I finally did reach the falls it felt like the effort was well worth it.
A North Carolina forest last fall. The only sounds were the leaves beneath our feet, birds and the distant sounds of the river. After the sensory overload of everyday life I need a period of quiet from time to time. North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains has quiet and beauty for those who seek it out. It’s no wonder so many creative people live hear, you can finally hear your own thoughts for a change.
As I drove away from Asheville I couldn’t help but explore this river at the bottom of a gorge surrounded by the fall colors. The water was clean and apparently full of fish on account of the fishermen wading in fly-casting. I wanted to stay here all day but on account of an eleven-hour drive ahead of me I dragged myself from here and back into the car, content with the thought that I just witnessed a little bit of heaven, otherwise known as North Carolina.