May in the Gorge
- Chris Cotton
- May 30, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 9
I hope everyone enjoyed their May! The weather is warming up and flowers are blooming across North Carolina. I spent the past few weekends exploring the mountains and kicking back at the lake with family, taking photos all along the way
Mother's Day in the Mountains
To celebrate Mother's Day earlier this month, I took my Mom and Dad to the Linville Gorge for a late afternoon, sunset hike. We had our sights set on Hawksbill Mountain, one of two unique peaks within the Linville Gorge (the other being Table Rock Mountain). We didn't reach the trailhead until 6 pm, but this gave us the perfect opportunity to get to the peak of the mountain right as the lighting was getting dramatic, and it proved to be as amazing as we hoped.
Many of the wildflowers on the mountain top were right around their peak bloom, but with the constantly high winds on Hawksbill Mountain, only a few of the flowering bushes still had blooms left. We ended up traversing down the side of the mountain to an area where the wind wasn't quite as harsh and found some beautiful Azaleas and Sand-myrtles! I managed to snap a photo of them in between gusts of wind, though it took some patience and a lot of waiting before the scene was still enough to take the photo! I loved how the sun was casting its rays into the gorge below and the touch of pink provided by the Azaleas.
A Stormy Memorial Day Weekend
For Memorial Day, I met my family down at Lake Wateree for a relaxing lake weekend of paddle boarding, bird watching, and impromptu storm-watching! Late on our first evening at the lake, a group of storms moved right past our house, offering an extraordinary light show at the end of the dock. As any photographer would do, I ran and grabbed my camera to try and snap some shots of the lightning shooting across the sky.
To capture the quick flashes of lightning, I set my camera on a timer to continuously take long exposures of the night sky so I wouldn't miss any of the action. I had been wanting to try lightning photography for a long time and finally had a perfect night to try it out. I loved the unpredictability of the lightning and how each composition was vastly different from the next. I had to take what the skies would give me, allowing me to kick back and fully enjoy the spectacle taking place in front of me.
Thanks for Reading!
June is right around the corner and I'm excited to continue my travels as summer starts! I've already got some fun adventures planned out so stay tuned for more photos and stories! And as always, please share this with anyone you think might enjoy. Thanks for stopping by!
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