Scenic Drive through the Little Smoky Mountains

I’ve decided I won’t be doing much hiking for a while. I missed a couple of weeks because it kept raining, but the main thing is the heat! I was originally going to hike this week along the Angel Falls Rapids trail – now that the river level is back down! – but I checked the weather forecast and saw that it was going to be 80°F when I started! That’s not even including the heat index, which I do need to consider, because it is HUMID here. This week especially it’s been absolutely steamy out. I know perfectly well I would be overheated and miserable and not enjoy myself, and I would not WANT to hike four miles, especially on a day when even getting up early would make no difference!

Okay, apparently I am feeling a little defensive about this. Let’s just say that most of the hiking will be put on hold until it’s getting into fall.  

So, today I went for a long scenic drive in place of a hike. I drove out to the west side of the park, then drove up north on 154. This is the way we went that first time out to Twin Arches, when we missed the turn and kept going. I remember thinking at the time – as we realized we needed to turn around! – that it was a very pretty drive. I continued up and around, driving northeast into Daniel Boone National Forest, which borders Big South Fork to the north. It was a gravel road but in good condition, with just a few potholes, not surprising considering the torrential rains we had last week!  

There were flowers all along the road, and after a few minutes I had a revelation – I should stop and take pictures of them! I hadn’t seen any cars even before I turned onto the gravel road, and didn’t expect to see any now. I was driving slowly anyway, because of the gravel and the winding nature of the road, and so I was able to stop whenever I spotted a flower or a view that needed to be captured. I had the air conditioner on, but not all the way cold so that it wouldn’t be as hard getting out to take pictures. (Also if it was too cold my glasses would fog up. That’s how humid it is!) 

An Unexpected Visitor

This morning, a short while after we opened, a few visitors came in and asked if we knew about the snake in front of the restroom. We did not! Which is amazing, since we most likely walked right past it when we opened up in the morning! It was a Gray Rat Snake, quite possibly the same one we chased away from the parking lot back in May... I got to use the Snake Stick to gently remove him from a place people do NOT want snakes to be in (the restroom!) and transfer him to the edge of the woods, after which he left the scene very quickly.

 

Blackberries

Back when I walked the Sunset Rim trail, I noticed a spot with a LOT of blackberry bushes. It was just a short way into the trail. Better yet, it was a cleared area with bushes all around the edges, not just a thicket! I headed out there with a couple of quart-sized yogurt containers, which make great berry buckets. I didn't get out as early as I meant to, so it was getting a little hot, but it was worth it - I got just about a quart. I could have easily gotten more without even having to push through the bushes, but once I got that much it looked like enough.

Pollinator Paradise

There is a patch of bee balm planted outside the visitor center, and it has been of much interest to a whole horde of pollinators - mostly insects, but I've seen a goldfinch on it once or twice (perhaps for the insects) and almost every time I look out the window I catch a glimpse of a hummingbird! (We suspect there is a nest in the tree nearby, but haven't spotted it yet.) The flowers are big, bold, and bright - and BUSY!!!

Camouflage failure

If your survival depends on your clever disguise as a simple twig, it might be best to stay in the forest among all the other twigs. However, this Giant Walkingstick insect (Megaphasma denticrus) does show up nicely against said wall! 

There's a fungus among us!

I think I've mentioned before that the forest wildflowers are scarce at this time of year due to the shade, but that the mushrooms and other fungi are quite abundant. Today the Cumberland Mycological Society had a "Mushroom Foray" at Big South Fork, not far from the visitor center, and I got to go check it out. I actually saw several mushrooms myself, just walking along the shortcut through the woods to the picnic shelter where they were setting up*. They were just returning from their hike with armloads of specimens, and spreading them out on picnic tables to identify as many species as possible. There were some bigger piles of the tastier edibles!  I hung out for quite a while chatting and helping to pick out which types looked similar, as those more knowledgeable were beginning to fill out index cards for the ones which were definitely identified. When I finally headed back to the VC, they were still working away, so some of my coworkers headed over to see for themselves, and I returned to the front desk.

*I realize that sentence is grammatically ambiguous, but I find the image amusing.

This is one of several that I saw while walking over. I've seen these before, and they always seem to have been chewed on!

More bugs!

(Written 7/1/15, posted 6/6/17 - I don't know why this never made it out of draft status! Sorry!)

As often happens, there were a number of interesting insects around the outside of Bandy Creek Visitor Center today!

"Don't mind me, I'm just a piece of bark."

This one has soft velvet upholstery. Yet another brightly-colored moth - butterflies don't sit still like this!

This is some kind of fly. Check out those spikes!

I don't know who this guy is.