Pictures 5: Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

Joyce Kilmer, which is part of Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina, is the oldest old-growth forest East of the Mississippi. There is an easy 2-mile loop (well, figure-8) trail that takes you past some really amazing trees. It was a little drizzly and rainy, but it made for very comfortable hiking weather.

What else is very cool is that many of these old-growth trees are deciduous, as opposed to the conifers in the West.

Somehow my auto-stabilizer on my camera got switched off for this hike, so many of the pictures I got were a little blurry. I only posted the good ones here.

Click any image to see the larger version on Photobucket.


That big thing hanging over is a rhododendron. We have what I thought was a big rhododendron in my yard in New Jersey, but this thing was massive.





12 more images below the jump...




Treehugger.


Patrick and Blake




I missed ridiculously green forests like this.


I can't get over how much I love this picture. I just think it's a great picture of Patrick, and I love Blake's little peeking face.




Don't these trees look like octopuses crossing the trail???


Say hello to my little friend.


I think I still have bugs in my hair.


These flowers didn't smell like anything. But they were pretty.