After a very busy couple of weeks and a lot of moving around, I had nine nights across two campgrounds that let me rest up, plan ahead for my upcoming European trip, and catch up on reading and blog posts. It was perfect timing.
First Stop: Watauga Dam Campground, TN
When I rejiggered my schedule to visit Mammoth Cave National Park, my routing became more south and east bound, which meant I was right on track for Watauga Dam. I love this place, and I’ve camped here at least a dozen times since 2017. This time, I hit the jackpot, someone had canceled out of site 2 and I scooped up three nights. (This campground sells out about 2-3 hours after the sites open up for the next calendar year on November 15 or so, meaning I got super lucky!). And when I checked in at the office, Sandy, one of the park hosts, found two more nights on a different waterfront site, so I spent five nights enjoying the quiet and solitude that is this wonderful place.
Why is site 2 the best? Because you’re kind of on a peninsula, with no one that close to you (except the guy in the next site who was offended I said no when he asked if he could fish at my site, about 10 feet from where I was sitting!). And look at the view you get:
The light was gorgeous the first few days, with clouds and overcast skies providing plenty of opportunity for me to practice landscape shots with my iPhone (because I hope to be doing a lot of that in Scotland in May).
The one knock on Watauga Dam is that there is almost zero cell reception. My T-Mobile hotspot did work some of the time, albeit slowly, but ATT and Verizon were useless. You have to make the drive up to the top of the hill to get anything from those two, and almost everyone does it at least once a day. Good thing the view is so nice 🙂
Second Stop: Warrior Creek USACE Campground, NC
My second stop in the “slow down and relax” portion of the trip was another familar place, the USACE campground on the south side of W. Kerr Scott Reservoir (now that’s a mouthful), near Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Again, I scooped up a cancellation: four nights in a big, private site with so much room I could have hosted another Alto or two!
This was also the first peeper sing of the season. Peepers, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, are little frogs about 2 inches long with very, very big lungs. They sing when it gets dark and stop when it gets light. I love hearing them, it’s such a different thing than where I grew up in LA. The third day I was there, it was overcast all day, just enough that the peepers kept singing all day long. When the sun finally broke through about 4PM, they took a break. I imagined the chorus thinking “wow, that was a long night!” as they panted and dove into the shallow water to cool off.
All too soon, it was time to head south, into South Carolina and two more campsites before putting the Alto back in storage and jumping on a plane. I’m getting excited now!
p.s. Both these stops made me wish I’d brought my little kayak along on this short trip. Long story why I didn’t and for good reason, but the weather was SOOOO nice that I was jonesing to get out on the water.
You flounder through life, struggling desperately so you won’t drown, even though you would float if you’d just relax.
Love all the water shots. It appears you and your iPhone are ready for Scotland!
These photos are beautiful. I wouldn’t even mind the no cell phone aspect. It’s good to disconnect and in such lovely surroundings I would hardly remember to check for service.
Sounds like such a nice stretch of time just to relax. I’m a little envious! Beautiful photos.
I gave up carrying equipment and only shoot with an iPhone now. I try to stay high end and current. I recommend the Moment App for more accurate color because you can adjust the white balance. I don’t love the app but it will render brightly colored flowers better than the iPhone will. If you get too far in the weeds with Moment, just swipe to close out the app completely and it will reset itself. Also with the iPhone Camera app, I have found that if you can get your focus and aperture square with a lot of blue sky in it when you tap the screen, and then lower it back into the foliage you want to shoot, the algorithm will detect more of the golden tones, but sometimes too much, so experiment. Also, you have to hold really, really still and wipe that lens clean all the time. Have a great trip!
This all sounds wonderful, even the no cell part! My sister has camped at Mamouth, on her way to and from visiting me in Michigan. She lives in AL.
What a beautiful camping spot! Full on spring.
I was hoping to get some rhododendron blooms but I was a few weeks too early. Someday!