A Day In The Fog

Back on July 4, 2012, June and I hiked up to the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower in the Smoky Mountains.  It was a beautiful day and I got one of my favorite photos from the Fire Tower that day.

You can click on any photo to get a larger view.

View from Mt. Cammerer Fire Tower in 2012

Our daughter Holly joined us yesterday to hike back up to the fire tower, hoping for another epic view.  The weather forecast was for partly cloudy and only a 20% chance of rain.  What we got was 8 hours hiking in fog and rain with no epic views.

The view on October 12, 2020

While fog is not great if you are looking for that mountain top view, it is great for photos in the forest. The cloud cover and fog make the light very even and soft with no really bright spots. I took advantage of several "photography breaks" on the 5 1/2 miles up. Here are some of my favorites.

At the beginning it was misting rain and overcast, but no fog.  The trail was often covered with leaves.  Sometimes is was solid yellow and other times solid red, depending on the type of trees.

Cosby Creek

The fog got thicker as we continued the climb into the clouds.  These are the conditions I really enjoy.  The fog makes everything mysterious and beautiful.

This is not far from the top.  The fog was not as thick and we could see further down the trail.

Proof we made it!

The fire tower is at an elevation of 5,054 feet, about 3,000 feet above where we started.  It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in the 1930s. The men who built the lookout drilled and blocked the stone by hand from a quarry about a hundred yards downhill from the tower. Some of these stones weighed as much as 600 pounds!  The architectural style used for the lookout was called "western" because it didn't require a raised structure to see above the trees.

After a short lunch inside the lookout we headed back down the trail.  About half way down we saw something we hadn't seen all day.  The sun broke through the clouds and we could see other mountain ridges in the distance.  The rain had stopped and things were warming back up. Not long after, the clouds closed in again.

It was a long day.  We are already talking about doing it again when the forecast is for no clouds.