Mark VanDyke Photography
GSMNP Newfound Gap Road Spring Greens
Newfound Gap Road Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Sevier county, Tennessee Mountains
Accessed via US-441 (Newfound Gap Road) in Gatlinburg
Date taken: April 26, 2016
While I rush around from destination to destination, planning and hoping for favorable light and atmospheric conditions at various destinations across the southeast and mid-atlantic, the roads and trails themselves pass largely unnoticed and underappreciated in my photography. When I sit at home during the off moments building excitement for my next adventure, however, it's more often than not these very trails and roads that are top of mind for me (not the destinations). So, this one is for the journey!
Newfound Gap Road is a thirty plus mile highway straight through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, connecting Gatlinburg, Tennessee with Cherokee, North Carolina. Gaining some three-thousand plus feet in elevation from either approach up to Newfound Gap (intersection of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail), the road transports visitors into and through obvious environmental changes--both visual and temperate. The original over-mountain highway passed through Indian Gap (assumed lowest point) until Andrew Guyot mapped the elevation of the many peaks in the Smokies, determining a "newly found" gap that was actually the lowest over-mountain pass, hence Newfound Gap. As America's most popular National Park, it stands that many folks have likely journeyed up and down this very highway as well.
© 2016 Mark VanDyke. All Rights Reserved. This image may not be used for anything without my explicit permission.
GSMNP Newfound Gap Road Spring Greens
Newfound Gap Road Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Sevier county, Tennessee Mountains
Accessed via US-441 (Newfound Gap Road) in Gatlinburg
Date taken: April 26, 2016
While I rush around from destination to destination, planning and hoping for favorable light and atmospheric conditions at various destinations across the southeast and mid-atlantic, the roads and trails themselves pass largely unnoticed and underappreciated in my photography. When I sit at home during the off moments building excitement for my next adventure, however, it's more often than not these very trails and roads that are top of mind for me (not the destinations). So, this one is for the journey!
Newfound Gap Road is a thirty plus mile highway straight through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, connecting Gatlinburg, Tennessee with Cherokee, North Carolina. Gaining some three-thousand plus feet in elevation from either approach up to Newfound Gap (intersection of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail), the road transports visitors into and through obvious environmental changes--both visual and temperate. The original over-mountain highway passed through Indian Gap (assumed lowest point) until Andrew Guyot mapped the elevation of the many peaks in the Smokies, determining a "newly found" gap that was actually the lowest over-mountain pass, hence Newfound Gap. As America's most popular National Park, it stands that many folks have likely journeyed up and down this very highway as well.
© 2016 Mark VanDyke. All Rights Reserved. This image may not be used for anything without my explicit permission.