A spring morning in the Smokies May 8, 2014
Posted by Jenny in hiking, nature, Smoky Mountains.Tags: Grassy Branch, Kephart Prong, Oconaluftee River
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The morning woods invite me in.
The Luftee runs straight toward a green vanishing point.
Kephart Prong tumbles toward the Luftee.
Geraniums.
Phlox.
Pinkish phlox and bluish phlox growing together.
Showy orchis.
Painted trillium. Everything in threes.
An encyclopedia of leaf shapes.
Flow of water and flow of sunlight.
Toothwort.
The valley of Grassy Branch lives up to its name.
Bluets.
Arbutus pushes up from winter into spring.
Spring beauties still thriving at 5500′.
Witch-hobble.
Plants, trees, and people all reach up toward the spring sunlight.
Endless streams and forests 
Grassy Gap ?
Al, where is Grassy Gap? The grassy photo was taken on the Grassy Branch trail, somewhere above Lower Grassy Branch.
I have always heard that the trail junction of Richland Mtn. Tennessee Branch and Kephart Prong Trail was called Grassy Gap.
Funny how all of those trail names have changed! The Park Service now calls the combination of upper Richland Mountain and the Tennessee Branch trail the Dry Sluice Gap trail, which I don’t like because it gets confused with Dry Sluice manway. (I also don’t like trail names that combine two distinct trails—Hyatt Ridge being another current example). What you call Kephart Prong trail comes from K. Prong up the Grassy Branch drainage and is now called Grassy Branch trail. I know the spot you’re talking about, of course. Sure isn’t grassy now. It’s completely overhung with rhodo and laurel, and the ground has very little green vegetation. Obviously it must have been very different.
Nice photos as always, Jenny. I always enjoy looking at them.
Hope you are having some spring weather up in Michigan!
beautiful photos as always ! that last photo, you could say ‘plants, trees,( i don’t know about people ) all reach toward God.
Thank you for visiting, Norman. I always appreciate your comments on the LeConte blog. I do not reach toward God myself, I reach toward the sunlight. You will probably dislike this response, but it’s just all about that minor detail of what I see as the truth. I have to stay true to my own ideas.
I appreciate your honesty, Jenny. I wish you were a believer, but it’s your choice. I enjoy reading your site.
Lovely! esp on a rainy morning.
Hi, Beth! I will contact you soon—I want to go on one of your bird walks—I will contact you before long.
very pretty day and great pictures
.. still nice here, but getting warmer .. the air conditioner came on on Sat .. had a 30 or so mile bike ride Sat. .. mostly greenways, only a few miles of “bicycle roulette” (45 mph speedlimit with no shoulders)
We were up on Kephart Prong a few days ago. Met a Park trail crew on their way out from a day of repairing the foot bridges .
I wonder if they fixed the fourth bridge up, which had a very tilted handrail!
Not sure about what they did but they looked like they could handle most anything.