Fall Color Hanging Rock NC
Twice during the last week, I've made the short drive to Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina. I chose this area because where it is located in the piedmont, the fall color tends to peak a little later than the higher elevations where I live. Big rock outcroppings like this area really cool cool mostly because of their location. Since it is in the piedmont(the big flat-ish area in-between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Coast), the high rock outcroppings allow you to see almost forever. Being from eastern Montana, I particularly enjoy anytime I can see forever:)
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The first of my two trips down here happened on a Wednesday night. As I was driving on Highway 268, I spotted this little area that looked like there might be some history to it. There is a picnic table nearby, so it's not a super-secret find, just a cool place to look at. The steep bank on one side of the stream combined with the thorns covering the bank kept me up high looking down. Plus, I really just wanted to get up to Hanging Rock for sunset.
After shooting this photo I hauled off for hanging rock. Time wasn't my friend on either one of my trips, since the sun sets so much earlier than in the summer.
Luckily, I made it up in time. There was a small group of kids up on the rock when I got there. Sometimes loud kids can be really annoying, but I think that turning nature-loving kids into nature-loving adults is well worth having them around. They left just after I got there, which was about 40 minutes before sunset. After that I had the whole place to myself.
Unfortunately, the clouds didn't cooperate as much as one would hope, but looking down on a sea of color is always nice. Below, you can really see where the mountains end and the piedmont begins.
While the sky didn't really give me an awesome show, there were some very nice clouds just before sunset. I enjoy how the lines in the clouds offset the lines in the rocks.
As the sun went down, just a touch of color came out.
It can feel like an eternity moving from one side of the rocks to the other. You can't just jump over! You have to walk back around a big crevasse. It doesn't take long to get across, but with changing light it always seems like it takes too long! The trees from the above and below photos are the same trees, but I had to walk/crawl like 50 yards just to get into position for the below photo.
The sunset was a little bit of a letdown, especially since I had to drive an hour and hike up the steep hill. But it was mostly a let down because the sun was JUST out of position to the right of 'dip' in between the two mountains in the above photo. I knew that as the year progresses, the sun sets farther and farther south, or left, so I knew that coming back a week later it would be just right.
But first...
My second trip to Hanging Rock started with a little hike down to lower cascades. Like a few other places in the park, it has it's own parking area outside of the main parking lots.
I was really happy to see some fall color here even though it was apparent I had missed the peak for this area. Here, you can see some greens coming through the fallen leaves.
Below, a fallen leaf lands on a mossy stump.
The two above photos were trail side photos taken not far from the car. Moving down to the falls now...
I had to wet the big foreground rock by splashing water on it. It was somewhat distracting when it was bright and dry.
In the below photo, I was actually about 10ft away from the camera when the shutter fired. Turning the camera to portrait orientation only made visible a small portion of the rhododendrons(see above on right), so I set the 10 second timer and went and held them back.
After a little bit of scrambling around, I found myself at the top of the falls looking down.
After getting down to the base of the falls, I really wanted to include the big swirl of leaves. The only problem is that I had to be a good 10 feet out into the water to get a good composition of it. And the only problem with THAT is that the WATER IS ICE COLD! Now, this problem could be easily remedied by my not being lazy and bringing my hip waders down with me. The only problem with this problem's remedy is that I am really lazy, and I only brought sandals. Oh well, into the cold water I go...
The longest exposure I could get was about 5 seconds with keeping pretty much everything withing the edges of the histogram.
Mounting my 10 Stop BW filter, I was able to shoot exposures as long as my heart desired. The below photo is 7 minutes.
Sitting patiently on the rocks waiting for the camera to finish the long exposures...
Below is a sequence of about 25ish 4 second exposures blended together using 'lighten' masks. It's definitely not was I was aiming to do but I think it looks neat.
When I got my feet warmed back up, I hiked up to the Moore's Knob Lookout Tower. I was running against the clock(as always) so it was a very exhaustive hike up the mountain. The views from the top are very much worth it! There is a 4 mile loop trail that this tower is on, but I took the short and steep route both ways to save time.
It's really windy at the top! I had to set up my tripod on the stairs just before reaching the top because the wind was blocked by the tower. Here is a cellphone photo of the tower on my way up...
From the top of the tower, you get a really good view of Hanging Rock State Park. On the upper left of the below photo, you can see the Hanging Rock outcroppings, just to the right and below that, the building you see is the visitor center, and to the right of that is the lake and beach.
Here is a tighter photo of Hanging Rock. On my computer I can zoom way in and see people on top.
On the trail up, I had passed a couple folks(they were enjoying themselves and I was in a rush), and after a few minutes they came to the rocks near the tower.
The sky wasn't showing anything special, but here is a shot from the rocks just past where the people are standing in the above photo. There are many large rocks that look like just a small push will send them falling.
At this point, it was just past 4 o'clock. I really wasn't sure if I could make it down to the lake, drive to the visitor center, and haul up to the top of Hanging Rock in time for sunset. I told myself that if I could get back to the car by 4:30, I would make for Hanging Rock. So I literally RAN down to the lake! I made it to the car at 4:28!
By the time I got to the base of the main rocks(just before the steep hike) I was basically breathing as hard as I could. I wouldn't say I'm out of shape, but I have a hard time pacing myself. And since at that time the sun was dropping out from below the clouds, slowing down was not an option!
I got there just in time for a pretty nice sunset. To give a little reference to where I was just an hour or so earlier, the tower I was standing on is located directly on top of the mountain/ridge just to the right of the sun. The wide angle makes it look really far away, but in reality it seems much closer.
Notice how the sun settled nicely into the 'dip'.
As I was crawling around on the rocks, I noticed a small gap in the rocks. And since I am a human, I pretty much try to recognize a face in everything. So I see a strange evil warlock-whale looking to consume the mountain where the Moore's Knob tower is.
That's all I have for this go round down in Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina for the fall season of 2014. Below, you can see some of my favorites from my previous trips into Hanging Rock State park during a little warmer time of the year...
First is a photo from Hidden Falls. It is a very short hike down to Hidden Falls, and a very pretty, small waterfall just off the main trail.
In the same general vicinity(within a mile) is the Upper Cascades. There are a couple cool falls in this area. This is the lower section of the Upper Cascades.
I was crawling around Upper Cascades when I almost put my hand down on this...
I loved sitting at a distance and watching this bird feed the chicks. She would fly up into the trees every few minutes and be back with food, causing all the chicks to go crazy(I tend to have that same effect:)
I came back a week after the above photo was taken to see the progress, and they got HUGE!
... and my wife think MY table manners are bad! It was cool to see the birds had grown large enough consume whole bugs!
The adult bird would perch on a nearby branch and scope me out before heading to the nest.
The first time I watched the sunset up on Hanging Rock, my battle with time was exactly the opposite as my other experiences. This time, I was up on the top almost 2hrs before sunset, which I handled by leaning my head back, closing my eyes and just listening to the breeze.
Thanks for looking!
