Tennessee is one of my favorite places for landscape photography. This great state is not only famous for American country music, but it’s a home for Great Smoky Mountains Nation Park. The park stretches out from Gatlinburg, Tennessee to Cherokee, North Carolina and attracts millions of visitors every year.
The park offers many campgrounds, hiking trails, fishing streams, observation points, wildlife, and flora & fauna. All of it combined makes it easily one of the most popular national parks in US. Everything the park has to offer makes it a fantastic place for landscape photography. It’s also a great spot for wildlife and nature photographers. If you ever wanted to see and photograph a black bear, this place got you covered, too. No hiking required. Just take the Historical Nature Trail road right from Gatlinburg. You have to be quick if you want to take some pictures. Black bear will generally run away from people, so have your camera ready. This one-way road is fairly narrow too, so please don’t forget to be respectful of others and don’t block the road. There are many pull over spots. If someone is behind you, use them to let cars behind you pass.
Trip Objectives
In my 610 miles long journey from Chicago to Tennessee, I was hoping to take some amazing waterfall and autumn photos, get some exercise by hiking couple trails, visit some historic structures the Great Smoky Mountains has to offer, watch a sunset from Clingmans Dome, and yes… see a black bear. I am happy to report that I (almost) got it all! The fall colors I was hoping to see were not quite there, yet. I was just simply a week to early. Clingmans Dome did not disappoint as I was able to watch a sunset and enjoy the 360 panorama view from the highest point in the entire park. I hiked many trails and saw amazing waterfalls, and yes, I did run into black bear on multiple occasions. Mission accomplished!
Closing Comments
Please head over to the landscape gallery page for more pictures from the trip. If you’re interested in photo prints, I recently teamed-up with Etsy to share my work you. Visit my Etsy shop and make sure to add my online store to your favorites, so you don’t miss on anything.
My subscribers will receive a lifetime discount on all products on Etsy. It’s free to sign up. I encourage you to do so.
Until next time,
Przemyslaw
