Great Smoky Mountains National Park: A Sampler

"Wild steep mountains floating in a haze of cloud...a sea of green trees swallowing the hills and valleys, and curling around the trails and rivers, with the wind in the leaves as its tide."  Sharyn McCrumb depicts a vision of the Appalachian landscape that aligns perfectly with my perception of this place.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been so kind to me over the years. She has nurtured my creative soul and my development as a photographer since 2014. It was then that I first visited with a new camera and a broken heart after dropping my young daughter off in Knoxville for an extended visitation with her father. Initially it was a frightening place to experience alone - big, remote, and a bear imagined around every bend in the trail. Ultimately, though, it became the place I sought solace, found inspiration, and re-learned the deep love I have for our planet. And so I returned again and again. Each time I drove to Knoxville and said goodbye to my daughter, I went back into the park, camera in hand. And each time, I became more comfortable, both in this wild place and in my own skin.

Below are just a few of the images I made, all within the confines of the park or looking into it from the boundary. You can click on each one to visit each gallery. There are old images and new here, chosen to give you an idea of how I see the Smokies and how much I love this place. I hope that comes through! Though I’m not skilled at using words to convey experience or sentiment (thank goodness for the writers of this wold!), I hope my images accomplish something similar.

Thank you for looking.