Monday, April 25, 2011

Smokey Mt National Park - Part 2

We said a final goodbye to family at Newfound Gap, and started out on a cloudy day. We did a 15 mile day, then 20, then 18, to start to make some tracks.
The trail always gets very green as we lose elevation. Here, we are heading to Davenport Gap.

 Breakfast spot along the trail, April 23rd




Wild blue dwarf iris
 View back at the Smokey Mountains. This is our breakfast spot on Snowbird Mt.
 The gated shelter doors are to keep out bears. There were no cables to hang bear bags at this shelter, so extra precaution was needed with food.



Flame azeala, starting to bloom at lower elevations
Campsite at Painted Branch, just outside Smokey NP

1 comment:

Rosemary said...

The purple flowers in this stream are wild blue crested iris (a miniature native iris)--this is quite a batch of them! Also the orange flower is of course the famous flame azalea. We got to see one glorious bush in bloom on the road to Cade's Cove...but soon your woods should be full of them. How exciting! --Rosemary