Great Wildflower photography without a long hike in the woods!

Spring is a wonderful to be in the Great Smoky Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountains national park is one of the best places to see a huge variety of beautiful wild flowers in the Southeastern United States. Photographers wait all year to come here to the Smokies and may hike miles to find the wild flowers that are looking for.

Well we will let you in on a little secret, if you rent a cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains, you me be able to take see stunning wildflowers and other fantastic nature photographs right from a cabin in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge or Sevierville!

To prove this point we picked out a location that is so close to both downtown Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge you can see it in the distance. You can also see from this mountain the famous triple peaks of Mt LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and Bluff Mountain near Wears Valley.

Here we found a few outstanding log cabins for rent - all with great views and facing west and semi west for great sunsets from the decks of these vacation rentals that all have hot tubs outside.

3 of these great cabins are all on the same street walking distance from one another and here is where I started to look for wildflowers that were only a short walking distance from these cabins in the Smokies.

I first looked with about 100 yards in both directions which was hard to do as the weather in the Smokies today was perfect and I could see all the way out to the Cumberland Plateau from all of these cabins.

Right next to the cabins were flowering trees and bushes and I took the picture of the dogwood tree with large white flowers and the red and yellow Columbine flower across the street.

Along the street you will see a rock wall and if you walk uphill along this rock wall you will see the nature has created a beautiful rock garden with Hepatica, wood anemone and great chickweed. There is also a beautiful contrast of colors and patterns on the leaves of wildflowers just waiting to bloom!

A few paces up on the left are vines with beautiful showy trumpets of yellow with a red throat. Stop here for a while and keep your eyes open as hummingbirds have been on this mountaintop now for almost a week and if you are careful you will see them darting around looking to get a tasty snack. Make sure you look out here at the awesome view too .Walking maybe another 75 more feet uphill is you will have passed by at least 8 clumps of common blue violets which have been blooming for weeks.

A little further up and you will see the fresh green and red leaves just unfurling to catch the light and warmth of the sun poking out between sprays of more Great Chickweed dancing in the afternoon breeze.

Walking higher up on the right are 3 clumps right now of a sure sign of spring in the Smokies - some Fire Pink flowers that are actually bright red.

Ok we only have a little ways more to go to get to the top of the mountain! Enjoy the view on the left and the other wildflowers on the right. Be sure to be careful or you may miss the pretty Daisy Fleabane some of which was poking out by some moss along the side of the road.

Ok not much further to go to get to the peak where you make a rich down the new paved road and you will see one of the best vistas in the Smokies and score of flowering bushes!

So what are the names of the cabins for rent so close to all of this beauty?

One of them is Angels Abode which is a 3 Bedroom Log Cabin for rent in Pigeon Forge with 3 Bathrooms and sleeps 8 people

 

Evening View which is a 3 Bedroom Log Cabin for rent in Pigeon Forge with 3 Bathrooms and sleeps 8 people.

 

Both smaller and larger vacation rentals units are also close by at American Mountain Rentals Cabins in the Smokies.