A Walk in the Fog

Jeffrey Stoner
Fine Art Photography

The Grayson Highlands area of southwest Virginia is a place of remarkable beauty. My last visit to Grayson was on a frigid day in February to take images of wild ponies in the snow. My plan at the end of May was to hike the 2 ½ miles to Rhododendron Gap to see if the rhododendrons were beginning to bloom and to hopefully see some newborn foals.

When I left the house at 4AM I discovered a thick fog had developed overnight. I wasn’t too concerned since it’s not unusual to have early morning fog where we live and normally can drive out of it in a few miles. Today, not only did I not drive out of it, the fog thickened.

After driving 45 miles through the fog I seriously thought about turning around but the forecast was for sunny skies so I decided to persevere. As I approached Damascus, VA the fog started to thin and as I drove higher into the mountains the fog totally disappeared.

I was greeted at Grayson Highlands State Park by a magnificent sunrise. I parked at Massie Gap and started hiking toward the Appalachian Trail. At the connection to the AT I noticed a cloudbank was obscuring Wilson Ridge. As I continued to hike fog rolled in and my visibility was reduced to 10-15 feet. Since the fog was so thick I decided to follow a horse trail that led around Wilson Ridge and connected to the AT on the opposite side. From there I followed the AT to Rhododendron Gap – actually I walked right past it since the rock formations that mark the Gap were hidden by the fog. That section of the AT has some interesting rock formations as you can see in this image where the trail makes a sharp left.

When I realized I walked past the Gap I decided to keep hiking the Appalachian Trail another 2 miles to Mount Rogers, the highest spot in Virginia at 5729 feet. I had never been to Mount Rogers so it seemed like the perfect thing to do while waiting for the fog to lift. The fog lent a feeling of mystery to the hike. The AT would go through woods, then enter an open bald where I could see nothing but the trail in front of me and white all around, and then enter a woods again.

The visibility improved slightly as I continued to follow the Appalachian Trail until it intersected with the spur trail to Mount Rodgers. As I followed the spur trail the sense of mystery increased when I entered a thick spruce-fir forest. This is the northernmost of five high-altitude Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests and is one of the few remaining habitats of the Frasier Fir. I was filled with awe as I walked through this forest. There was total silence, water dripped from the trees, and tendrils of fog wound their way through the forest. There is no view from the top of Mount Rodgers but I knew I reached the top when the trail ended at a rock formation surrounded by forest. I sat on the rocks, ate a snack, and enjoyed the solitude.

On the way back to Massie Gap the fog lifted and I was greeted to a sunny day with a beautiful blue sky. When I left the house that morning my intention was for a beautiful day of hiking and photography. I did get to experience that, but not in the way I imagined. It was much better.



Website: --> http://www.JWSPhotoArts.Com
Blog:--> http://www.jeffreystonerphotographyblog.com
Twitter--> http://twitter.com/JeffreyStoner
Facebook--> http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=1589866687
LinkedIn--> http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreystoner