Great Smoky Mountains (photos)

I’ve been wandering the Southern Highlands quite often these past few weeks to take advantage of unseasonably mild weather and vistas illuminated by the mellow winter sun.

Climb a peak at just the right moment and one can avoid the typical fourteen inches of snow piled throughout the upper elevations during this facet of the season; with pristine atmosphere begatting smogless visibility you can almost (but not quite) see the vague contours of distant ridges and hills hundreds of miles away with the visual clarity a Cherokee roaming these places would have enjoyed a thousand years ago.

There is no snow now, but soon. The temperatures are easing to lower digits again and the winds are swirling the returning winter grays. I’m ready for them.

Enough talk: here are a few of the photos I’ve clicked recently â€“ they can say it better anyway….

Sunrise, Newfound Gap