Why They Call Them The Smokies. . .

Several of the pictures I re-sized last week provided excellent examples of the reason for the name Smoky Mountains. I think it's fairly obvious - they look like they're smoking.

Explanations on the internet left me shaking my head, and the pictures used to illustrate the phenomenon were exceedingly poor - typically just low, scudding clouds following a rain.

It might help to realize the Smokies don't always look like they're smoking. If you spend enough time in the mountains, however, you'll recognize the phenomenon when you see it.

Each of these pictures was taken near the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. For years, I'd get to the mountains at mid-day or later after drives of whatever distance. Then I started leaving home in the wee hours to arrive in the Andrews Valley or at Nantahala Gorge or Cherokee or somewhere else just at sunrise.

That opened my eyes and set the tone for a day of photography. I should have remembered the glory of early morning in the Smokies from my first trips through the mountains on Trailways buses in the early 1960's.

The additional pleasure of light to non-existent early morning traffic on the Parkway or even the regular highways of western North Carolina can't be over-emphasized.