by Don McGowan | Oct 6, 2019 | October 2019
Far across the lower, marshy end of Pike Lake on Friday morning two swan parents shepherded their small family of four cygnets, too distant to be seen with the unaided eye. It was only when I looked through a moderately long telephoto that I spied them paddling along...
by Don McGowan | Sep 28, 2019 | September 2019
It is the Land of Gichi-Gami, the Great Sea. It is sacred to the Anishinaabe People. In autumn the maples (Acer) put on a display of color. They are joined by others – from the cinnamon ferns (Osmunda cinnamomea) to the hickories (Carya) and every imaginable...
by Don McGowan | Sep 21, 2019 | September 2019
The Noah Waldroup farm is nestled a scant half-mile below where the Appalachian Trail passes through Taylor Hollow Gap on its way to Hot Springs (Madison County), North Carolina. The 4686′ majesty of Bluff Mountain rises to the west. Noah’s descendant,...
by Don McGowan | Sep 14, 2019 | September 2019
The remains of the Ramsey-Chandler Barn in the Madison County township of Revere, known far and wide as Sodom Laurel, once belonged a Roman Catholic Mission that served the isolated mountain community for many years. Today it belongs to Terry Vanderman, who retired to...
by Don McGowan | Sep 8, 2019 | September 2019
For most visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park the first overlook consciously encountered on the Tennessee side of Newfound Gap is Morton Overlook, the Smokies quintessential sunset location. However there is actually another viewpoint between Morton and...
