Grayson Highlands in Bloom

Jeffrey Stoner
Fine Art Photography

On June 9th I traveled to Grayson Highlands in southwest Virginia to experience the Catawba Rhododendron that bloom in early June. It was a beautiful clear day which was much different than the thick fog on my last visit at the end of May.

I parked in Grayson Highlands State Park’s Massie Gap parking lot and began the hike to Rhododendron Gap. There are several trails that lead to the Gap and today I took the Appalachian Trail, to Wilburn Branch Trail, and then connected back to the Appalachian Trail.

The Wilburn Branch Trail is one of my favorite trails in the park. It climbs across Wilburn Ridge at 5526 feet in elevation and has unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.

After climbing down Wilburn Ridge I reconnected to Appalachian Trail. This part of the trail has a fun feature called Fatman Squeeze Tunnel. The Squeeze is a short tunnel through the rock and makes for a cool spot on a hot day. It’s easy to squeeze through unless you have a large backpack.

I continued on the Appalachian Trail until it connected with Rhododendron Gap Trail which is marked by large rock formations. A short climb up these rocks gave me a view of a landscape that feels like it is from another place and time. There are hundreds of acres of rhododendron stretching to the horizon.

I climbed down from the rocks and hiked east along Rhododendron Gap Trail. The trail goes through rhododendron in open fields as well as through rhododendron tunnels.

The image to the right was taken after I climbed to the top of a small outcrop and looked back across the fields I just hiked through.

I headed back to the original rock formation. While taking images from the top of the rocks I noticed another photographer. He looked familiar and then I realized it was Sven, originally from Sweden, who I met last year while taking images of the rhododendron on Roan Mountain. Last year I suggested he go to Grayson Highlands in early June and was glad to see he made it.

We could see a huge thunderstorm heading our way so Sven and I walked/ran the 2.5 miles back to Massie Gap. When we reached a high spot along the trail I could see five simultaneous lightning strikes in the distance. The thought of holding a metal tripod in this thunderstorm kept me moving at a good clip. Sven and I made it safely back to Massie Gap where we parted company and I waited in my car for the storm to clear.

When the storm cleared it was close to sunset and I thought I would climb up the .4 mile trail to Big Pinnacle Rock (5.069 feet) to get a view of the Highlands. In this image you can see Wilburn Ridge on the upper left and the Appalachian Trail near the top center. As the sun was setting I hiked back to the car.

It was a great day for experiencing the incredible beauty of the mountain highlands.



Website: --> http://www.JeffreyStonerPhotography.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

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