{"id":2276,"date":"2015-10-14T00:10:23","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T05:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/?p=2276"},"modified":"2015-10-14T00:10:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T05:10:23","slug":"a-sunset-on-unaka-mountain-8-1-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/rattreks\/a-sunset-on-unaka-mountain-8-1-2015.html","title":{"rendered":"A Sunset on Unaka Mountain – 8-1-2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the first day of August I decided it would be nice to take a trip to Beauty Spot near the summit of Unaka Mountain to hopefully catch a nice sunset there before work. I stopped on the way to pick up some supper at the ‘Hawg N Dog’ in Erwin which turned out to be some smoked ribs, a hot dog, some bbq beans and some coleslaw. I planned to eat this on the mountain while I waited on the sun to set. As I made my way slowly up the rough gravel road I noticed a red truck behind me but, it was not until I parked and got out at the top that I recognized my good friend and fellow mountaineer Larry Jarrett<\/a>. He was on his way back from Lower California Creek Falls where he had devised a makeshift ‘Hillbilly Life Vest’ flotation device in order to get across the Nolichucky River which is the shortest way to reach those falls. We had a nice visit there before he continued on his journey home and I towards the summit where I would pick a spot to eat and await the approaching sunset. There were several others already there with the same ideas in mind. I decided to go off the top a ways to get a view towards the South and find a place to myself where I set up my tripod and began to eat the awesome food I had brought along.<\/p>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>

Sunset from Unaka<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"food\"<\/a>

My supper and the view looking South down the Appalachian Trail there<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"view\"<\/a>

Looking almost Eastward into NC and the Black Mountain range<\/p><\/div>\n

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Looking South down the Appalachian Trail<\/p><\/div>\n

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When the sun goes down, we`ll be groovin’,,,,,<\/p><\/div>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

Southeast over the AT<\/p><\/div>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

Looking downhill towards the South the way the trail goes<\/p><\/div>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

The mountains seem to go on forever<\/p><\/div>\n

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Looking towards Kingsport,TN. You can see Bays Mountain just to the left of the center of this pic<\/p><\/div>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

As the sun sank lower, the mountains were painted in many colors. Oranges, purples, etc<\/p><\/div>\n

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A huge alligator cloud was trying to eat the sun or perhaps it was an alligator war ship firing laser rays into it ?<\/p><\/div>\n

More people came and I remembered that there was also to be a full super moon on this night so, some of these folks were going to be staying for that as well. As I finished my meal and the sun begin to set, I started taking pics with both my pocket cam and my slightly larger camera as well. Although I do have a neutral density filter and a circular polarizer on the larger camera, I am still unable to obtain the top shots that those with actual SLR cams can get yet, I am happy to just be on the mountain and enjoy the views and capture what I can.<\/p>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

Zoomed pic to the South<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>

A Swordfish cloud ?<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>

The light changes literally by the second. The world is turning so fast, the sun disappears quickly.<\/p><\/div>\n

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As the sun disappeared you can start to see the lights of Erwin below<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>

A fire breathing swordfish ?<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"sunset\"<\/a>

Here Bays Mountain can clearly be seen<\/p><\/div>\n

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Looking Southeast into NC, Mt Mitchell can be seen in the far distance if you know where to look<\/p><\/div>\n

\"trees\"<\/a>

Gnarly trees on Unaka<\/p><\/div>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

Pictures can not do the scene justice. The colors over the mtns were spectacular<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"sunset\"<\/a>

Here you can see the lights of Erwin closest and in the far distance beyond can see the lights of Greeneville TN<\/p><\/div>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

Zoomed shot to show the lights of Erwin (closest) and Greeneville (distant)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>

Closeup of the alligator cloud,,,, or is it a crocodile ?<\/p><\/div>\n

\"view\"<\/a>

Mountains to the South<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a>\"sunset\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the sun had completely disappeared it was hard to leave so, I decided to go in late to work and stay and see the full super moon rising in the East as I knew it would be up early and I hoped I could get a couple usable pics of it too. Although I am not good at moon pics it was well worth the wait as it was spectacular to see from that vantage point even if I could not capture it in pictures.<\/p>\n

\"moon\"<\/a>

Blurry pic of the super moon as it rises over the mountains of NC to the East<\/p><\/div>\n

\"moon\"<\/a>

The super moon<\/p><\/div>\n

\"moon\"<\/a>

The super moon<\/p><\/div>\n

\"moon\"<\/a>

Super Moon<\/p><\/div>\n

Afterwards,\u00a0 I hiked down to the car in the dark and made the trip home to clock in to work feeling completely rejuvenated having spent a few hours with Mother Nature at her finest. I can not wait until the next time we meet again,,,,,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the first day of August I decided it would be nice to take a trip to Beauty Spot near the summit of Unaka Mountain to hopefully catch a nice sunset there before work. I stopped on the way to pick up some supper at the ‘Hawg N Dog’ in Erwin which turned out to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2276"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2284,"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions\/2284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rattreks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}