Great Smoky Mountains National Park Pictures

I love nature and hiking. On every trip I take, I try to squeeze in some time to get out and enjoy some of the beauty that surrounds us. On a recent trip, I visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a couple of days.

While I'm certainly not a photographer, I do enjoy taking pictures while I hike. It provides me with some pleasant memories and thoughts after the fact, and it seems to help me become more aware of all of the things surrounding me at the time.

After my trip, I often find I have a lot of extra photos that really serve no useful purpose. Therefore, I generally end up sharing them online for others to enjoy. Perhaps they will inspire someone to pay a visit to these same areas.

On this page you will find some of the "extra" photos that I snapped in mid-April. I hope you enjoy my Great Smoky Mountains National Park pictures.

I did have time for one real hike while I was at the park. I took the 8 mile round trip on the Ramsey Cascades Trail. It was over a 4 hour time committment and fairly strenuous at times, but I was rewarded with a private, front row seat at the foot of the falls.

The first image here is of the Middle Prong of Little Pigeon River, which hikers cross in the very first section of this hike and which they follow nearly the entire length of the trail.

Being spring time, there were plenty of wildflowers to be found, the ones below are just a sampling of what I saw on that April morning.

It would be wrong of course, to fail to include a picture of the cascades themselves. So here is a shot from the foot of the cascades. The morning sun was right at the top of the falls, but you can still get a good idea of what it looks like (sorry, I don't have any filters). This comes to you with no effort at all thanks to the fact I selflessly dragged my old body up 2,000 feet just for you. So, enjoy ;)

This set of Great Smoky Mountains National Park pictures are compliments of a quick stroll down the TwentyMile Trail at the south western end of the park. Time didn't permit me to hike the entire trail, but a two mile route from the trailhead and back did allow me to glimpse more of the rushing creek and small cascades as well as the abundant foliage, mosses, fungus, and wildflowers in the area.

With little time, I enjoyed a drive around the park, stopping at some scenic spots along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, some of the roadside cascades along Little River road, and even a broader view of the park near Clingman's Dome and Newfound Gap off of the Newfound Gap road.

As a result, the remainder of my Great Smoky Mountains National Park pictures are a hodge podge from various locations.

This first shot is of the hike to Grotto Falls, the only other full hike we took. It was a 3 mile round trip (sopping wet the whole way) along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. It was rainy and cool, but we had some great views of the creek.

While the shot at the top of this page was taken from Clingman's Dome, this one was taken along the southern border of the park near Fontana Marina at a roadside pull off.

This shot was taken from the car actually, it was raining. It's simply one of several cascades along Little River Road at the western end of the park.

Finallly, I'll wrap up my Great Smoky Mountains National Park pictures with a simple wildflower which I found pretty enchanting and a view of nearby Mingo Falls which is a 120ft fall just outside of the park near Cherokee, North Carolina. A quick but steep hike.