All Things Vintage: GSMNP #AprilA2Z

I’m so happy you returned for another segment of All Thing Vintage, kittens and dawgs! In the early 20s several local Knoxvillians shared a dream of creating a national park in the Blue Ridge Mountains and thankfully today we can enjoy the beauty found in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP).

Great Smoky Mountains National Park dedication cermony at Newfound Gap
Image source credit President Franklin Roosevelt making speech at Newfound Gap on June 15, 1934
Great Smoky Mountains National Park dedication cermony crowd gathered at Newfound Gap
Crowd gathered at dedication, image source.

The park recorded more than 10M visitors in 2014 and it’s obvious to us each year the numbers get a little stronger. The Great Smoky Mountains is our favorite spots to visit and with it being within a short driving distance from Knoxville, then we can go anytime.

I’ve taken and shared many GSMNP photos over the years with you, look at the vintage crowd photo, then imagine me standing way to the back and to the left edge of that picture shooting over the North Carolina valley, like this one from Newfound Gap.

GSMNP Newfound Gap view
I shot this picture last October. The bright morning sun creates a challenge for any photographer. I still consider myself a novice behind the camera. My original was too dark, so it was Pixelmator photo-editor to the rescue allowing me to lighten the shadows without loosing all the color in the mountains.

I encourage you, if you’re new to Curious as a Cathy, to use the key words “smoky mountains” in my site search box to see more of God’s country.

I appreciate being apart of this challenge. I can’t image all the tedious work that goes into pulling something like this together, but our friends on the A2Z Team do a fantastic job and so I just want to say, thank you!

Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out
Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Heather M. Gardner
Jeremy @ Hollywood Nuts
AJ Lauer
Pam @ An Unconventional Librarian
Damyanti Biswas @ Daily Write
Zalka Csenge Virág @ The Multicolored Diary
Joy Campbell @ The Character Depot
John Holton @The Sound of One Hand Typing

Now, I invite you to hop with me in checking out some of the amazing A2Zers playing along this year and I hope you’ll come back tomorrow to read about Hershey’s.

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23 comments

  1. These mountains would be beautiful to see in person. I love the mountains and the forests…it feels like home to me.

    1. Birgit, It is a beautiful place and sometime I hate bragging about it so much because of all the tourist we see. lol But, I know it doesn’t belong to me and it is meant to be shared with many. So, I take great pride in telling others about the good ole Smoky Mountains! 😉

  5. Cathy,
    The sun looks like a glowing pearl in the sky in the photo that you took.

    I read my comments from my post yesterday after commenting on your blog already. I want to thank you for sharing with me about your cousin. I’m sorry to hear he was taken from your great-aunt and I hope that the two have been able to compensate for lost time since. I also hope that your family has found some healing from this too.

  6. Wonderful feature on my home state here. It live on the west side, so I don’t often go this far east to visit, but darned if you do not have me wanting to head that way.

  8. It looks like a fabulous park, Cathy and I enjoyed your photos. Isn’t it great to live near such a beautiful place? We feel the same way about Niagara Falls. Happy A-Zing! 🙂

  9. I agree. Back home IS God’s country. 🙂 I sure do miss it. I may never make it back to that side of the Mississippi River in this lifetime -and it looks like I won’t – but I will never forget the beauty of the gorge in the fall. There’s nothing prettier on this earth, even the Texas bluebonnets in the springtime.

    Thanks for sharing such an awesome photo of the mountains. Could I please play with it in Photoshop? I won’t post it anywhere. I just want something beautiful to practice my editing and I could send back to you what I come up with.

    Have a blessed day!

    1. Suzanne, thank you for asking permission first. You may use it to your heart’s content and yes, please share with me your photo-edits. I can’t imagine ever leaving this part of the country and yet I know this could be a reality, if DH can’t find work in our immediate area. This is one thing we really do not want to do. We are exhausting all possibilities before seeking employment elsewhere. Please keep us in your prayers, if you would. Now, have fun with Photoshop!

      1. Thanks, Cathy. I appreciate it very much. 🙂

        Yes, we will definitely keep you and your husband in our prayers. Has he considered a work-at-home type job? What kind of work does he do? David wants to know his name so that he can put it on our prayer card.

        I hope this response comes through. I hit a connection glitch the first time around, so sorry if you get it more than once.

        Praying!

  10. Wow, that’s a beautiful photo! It was truly amazing to see all those people in that same spot! Very cool Cathy…

    Michele at Angels Bark

    1. Michele, It is amazing to think where my feet trod, as in this today’s photo share, that important historical figures also walked. That’s the one thing that comes to mind when I visit most places of historical value. It’s good to reflect on those things, I think. It gives me a sense of awe and thankfulness.

  12. I love the name — Great Smoky Mountains. Just that is enough to make me want to go there. The photo of the mountains with the bright sun is lovely!

    1. Lori, the Great Smoky Mountains are beautiful and a must see! Maybe you’ll have the pleasure of visiting God’s country one day. 😉

  13. I love the photo which you have shot and though you said to have edited it a little, but it looks just perfect 🙂
    Have heard a lot about GSMNP..Hope I am able to visit it someday!

    Cheers,
    Srivi – AtoZChallenge
    G for Graveyard | Twitter

    1. Srivi, The Smoky Mountains get a number of visitors from across the USA and from Canada going on vehicle license plates. But, we have met some folks from Europe and I’d say there are more foreigners who visit that we aren’t aware of. If you’re ever in the south eastern part of America, then you may want to work this in as one of your destinations.

  14. Good morning, dear Cathy!

    You and DH are indeed lucky to live such a short distance from God’s country, the Great Smoky Mountains. I’m sure Mrs. Shady and I would be there all the time if we lived close enough. We’re getting a little tired of beaches. I’m sure an eerie feeling sweeps over you when you look at the historic pictures and realize that you were there at the same location 80 years later. You did a fine job of brightening up that picture of the Gap. Thank you for taking me along to one of the most beautiful spots on earth, dear friend Cathy!

    1. Good afternoon, Tom! We are quite fortunate to live in a place surrounded by so much beauty. That is why it would be so hard for us to give up, if we had to move and this is the reason we’re exhausting all options before we have to cross the line to look elsewhere. I’m not sure if I get an eerie feeling or if it’s more of a sense of wonder. It’s exciting to think that I walk the same stretch of land that President Roosevelt and the founding fathers of the Smoky’s did. What would they think of the park today? Did they envision the park getting 10M visitors a year? It would be interesting to ask them these questions or just to see the wonder on their faces. President Roosevelt would like to visit the park along paved highway in an air conditioned car, I bet, as would any of those early park visitors would have enjoyed such luxuries. Oh well, it’s fun to think about the past meeting the present and it sorta makes me look to the future. I hope the park remains a free public access for many generations to come.

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