Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Enjoy some pictures I took of the spectacular fall colors at Great Smoky Mountains National Park last week.  I was in the area training for my AF Reserve job.  These are too pretty not to share with the world!

You'll notice that I'm in my winter coat (it was in the low 50s) for some of the pictyres but just in a t-shirt for others, those pictures were after a hike up the Laurel Falls trail, about 300' in 1.3 miles.  Got a tad warm.

A few things of note.  First, these are all taken with my iPhone camera.  The coloring was difficult because of the cloudy conditions.  Secondly, the other people in the picture are some of the folks I work with.  Finally, I've captioned some of the plant and flower pictures with their names.

Laurel Falls.  These are the "upper falls", the "lower falls" are forward of my feet (imagine them spilling down off the bottom edge of the photograph).  The trail cuts right across them and I'm standing on the trail, 75' tall total.

This really thick, really tall moss.  Thought it was mystical-looking.

Asters.

This waterfall was set back from the road some.  We tried to cross the river to see it better, but weren't able to.

This flower is called a mountain gentian.

Another aster.

My favorite picture of all of them.  I like that green color in the foreground.