Green Thumb of Nature!

I know, I know, another bee on a flower picture! Hey, what can I say. I just love the relationship between the insects and the flowers. It is an amazing cycle of dependence, mutual benefits, and life, that I struggle to understand in more detail.



                                     Yellow Cone Flower - Rudbeckia laciniata

These beautiful flowers were adorning the summit of Mt. LeConte 

on a recent hike up to the Mt. LeConte Lodge for an overnight stay. 

Nature has the most awesome green thumb!  



"Tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes!"                                              

William Wordsworth(1770-1850): English Romantic Poet                                                                       

A Priestly Flower?

I got to go back to one of my favorite places this past week and that was LeConte Lodge on top of Mt. LeConte near Gatlinburg, TN. The lodge is at 6593' elevation and is a wilderness lodge and is only accessible by foot. The shortest trail to the lodge is 5 miles and the longest is just over 8 miles. The flowers were in full bloom around the lodge area and I added another beauty to my list of flowers I have never seen(or at least never noticed) before. These were growing right beside the dinning hall along with Bee Balm and Yellow Coneflowers. 

Monkshood  -  Aconitum uncinatum

The flower is shaped similar to a Monks hood.

 It has been used as an external pain reliever but is considered         

poisonous. Indians used this flower as a poison for their arrow tips.

"Nature is the art of God."

     Thomas Browne(1605-1682): English Author in various fields including medicine, religion and science.

Posing for a Handout

Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) also known as Pine Squirrel, North American Red Squirrel and Chickarees. They are very territorial and prefer a diet of seed from conifer cones but eat a variety of things.
On a recent hike up the Rainbow Falls Trail to Mt. LeConte Lodge, I happened upon this Red Squirrel who posed long enough for a few shots. It was obvious he was hoping for a handout of some morsel of food but by the plumpness of his body, I think he is getting well fed by all the hikers that come by his home in the woods.

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
William Shakespheare (1564-1616):  English Playwright and Poet

Dark-thirty At The Trail Head

Why is this picture so dark, you ask? Because it was dark! We arrived at the trail head at Newfound Gap about 30 minutes before 1st light. We wanted to get an early start to be able to take advantage of the coolness of the early morning(July) and also experience the mountain as it comes to life. Newfound Gap is located on the road going through the Smoky Mountain National Park from Gatlinburg, TN to Cherokee, N.C.. The gap is actually on the state line and the high point on the road. The Appalachian Trail(AT) follows the crest of mountains that cross the gap and run from northern Georgia all the way to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. We are going up the AT 2.7 miles to hook up with the Boulevard Trail and then on to Mt. LeConte Lodge. This trail to the lodge is about 8 miles total distance.

"An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): American Author, Poet, Naturalist, Philosopher

Mt. LeConte, A Walk In The Woods!

The summit of Mt. LeConte at 6593' is the 3rd tallest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is a shot of the peak as seen from Cliff Top, a favorite place to hike to and watch the sun set from the top of Mt. LeConte. In the coming weeks I will post a series of pictures taken of a hike my brother and I completed up Mt. LeConte for an overnight stay at the lodge. If you have never been up LeConte, and have any interest in hiking, I strongly suggest you give LeConte a try. It is not easy, but not too difficult either. There are several trails leading up different sides of LeConte, each with their own good and bad points. This particular trip, we will go up the Appalachian Trail to the Boulevard trail to the LeConte Lodge and back down the Alum Cave Trail. Hope you enjoy the shots.

"Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out-it's the grain of sand in your shoe."
Robert Service (1874-1958): Scottish Writer and Poet

A Simpler Time?

We often like to think of the older days as a better and simpler time. Try to remove yourself from your present everyday lifestyle and picture this meager cabin as your home and the surrounding fields as your grocery store. The only luxuries were what you made from the creativity of your mind. Made by using a few basic tools, your hands and the sweat of your brow! I venture to say while it is nice to think of a time without all the crazy things we all deal with today, it was no picnic back in the day either. Life may not have been as hectic as today but it was hard. Most things were done out of necessity instead of choice. This cabin and farmstead is located on the Cherokee Orchard Motor Nature Trail in Gatlinburg, TN. It begins in Gatlinburg and meanders around the western base of Mt. LeConte. After a while it is only a one way road and it is a great drive that forces you to slow down and take in the mountains from a much closer perspective.

"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him."
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865):  American President