Clingman's Dome Sunset Groupies

To quote the retro National Park video playing on the local cable channel,  "Clingman's Dome, let me tell ya, it's waaaay up there!"

Before we drove to the top of the 6,643 mountain peak located on the Tennessee-North Carolina state line ridge we stopped in at the Sugarlands Visitor Center on Sunday night.  After asking where was a good place to go for sunset we thanked the young ranger on duty and gave her a hearty "Welcome back to work!".

Traffic was fairly light on the way up, and the parking lot wasn't even full.  As we neared the top of the ridge we noted that fall color was done at the higher elevations, but the red berries showing on the leafless trees were just as stunning as any maple leaf in my opinion.

We had some time to kill so we wandered onto the Forney Ridge Trail for a little while.  We only went .10 mile down and then back up because of Wayne's tender back, but it was an enjoyable stroll and less steep than the walkway up to the observation tower.

About 15 minutes before sunset we made our way to where all the other sunset groupies had set up.

I got bored waiting for the "moment" so I wandered up and down the row, taking shots of what the light was doing before it disappeared.

Can you believe that me and this guy were the only ones not watching the sun sink obsessively?

The moment made its appearance eventually, and the groupies sprang into action.  Shutters were clicking like mad.  I thought I got nothing, sunsets are not something I have much practice with, but I didn't do too bad.  Enjoy my straight-out-of-the-camera attempts!

One of my favorite shots was of this guy that I snapped as I was walking back to the truck.  Wayne said I should photoshop his face in there...if I only knew how!  One of these days I'm sitting down with that Photoshop software and manual I bought and figuring it out, I swear.  It'll be "more fun than huntin' possum!"...as they say in the old National Park video.