April 17, 2007 - Little River, Great Smoky Mountains

Canon 5D, 24 - 105 mm F/4L IS @ 24 mm, f/11, 4 sec., ND filter, ISO 100

A view of the Little River in Great Smoky Mountains NP. If you like rivers, streams, waterfalls, and woods, then the Smokies are a great place to visit. As this image suggests, it can be dark and cool even during the middle of the day. The smell of the woods and the cool stream can be overpowering and intoxicating.

What this photograph does not show, however, is the crowds that routinely fill this place. The Smokies draw millions of visitors every year and that's not necessarily a good thing. It's all too easy to find examples of people harming this fragile ecosystem, usually without any apparent thought about what they're doing. It's no wonder that a number of parks in the national system are looking for ways to restrict how people interact with the environment.