the last smoky mountain sunrises

pileated woodpecker

cardinal

I hadn't planned to photograph the sunrise on the last morning at the Great Smoky Mountains, but quickly changed my mind when I saw this dusting of clouds hovering over the mountain tops.  I knew it was going to be an interesting sunrise, as are most.

Each morning, about 20 minutes prior to the sunrise (7:20am sunrise) we would sit wrapped in blankets with our coffee in hand and wait and wait and wait...for the sun to make its move.  Once the sun started to rise and create a multitude of colors in the sky; I would uncover myself and stand in front of my tripod for the next 30 minutes.  Every minute that passed the sunrise looked different.  How could I not continue to try and capture it through my camera lens?  That's how I ended up with over 100 sunrise images.  Then how do I just pick one image to put on my blog? Instead you get to see a slew of them.  

on another note

I'm not sure if you remember the story of last year when we were in Boone North Carolina and saw the largest woodpecker I had ever seen through a window!  The pileated woodpecker was at least 18 inches tall.  no joke!  Joe quickly ran to grab the camera and the bird was gone...  We have no pictures to tell the story, only distant memories.

This time Joe and I were sitting on the balcony and I saw the woodpecker fly right in front of us and land in a nearby tree.  I had the camera right next to me since we were bear watching in hopes to see those black bears again.  This woodpecker wasn't quite as large as the last one, but I at least got a photograph of it.  Not the best picture I might add, but that's what happens when you have to use super zoom on a point and shoot.

Part 1: a trip to the great smokey mountains.  well sort of.

Part 2: a taste of moonshine
Part 3: the land of blue smoke
Part 4: every travel story has a climax, this was ours

Part 5: the time we broke the law