Our Trip To Gatlinburg, TN - pt. 2 of 3
Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 PM in Travel
Things to do in Gatlinburg
We did a lot of things. Most of them cost money, except one. Sales tax is HIGH in the area, like 11%.
Aquarium of the Smokies: Awesome aquarium, better than the one I’ve been to in Chicago. It’s $22 a person.
Was skeptical if it was worth it at first.
Frog chillin’ session.
SubhanAllah, what colors, man!
Finding Nemo.
A sawfish!
And sharks. “Big sharks.”
Jellyfish was on fire. Almost flickr front page worthy, huh?
An octopus! Couldn’t get a good shot until someone else fired their camera’s flash
and I caught it with an open shutter without flash and the shot turned out great.
Horseback Riding: Lots of fun. Went on an hour long horseback riding adventure off the edge of some forest trails. The horses were literally riding on the edge of small forest cliffs. We saw a BEAR! It’s $25 a person.
Yee-haw!
This guy rode behind me. I told him I rode an elephant
in India and a camel in Pakistan he was impressed.
[whip sound]
Skylift: Take a skylift way up high over the town. At the top you can get off and have a nice view. $12 per person.
Up it went.
And a panoramic view from the top. Click the pic.
Great Smoky Mountain National Park: This was the BEST. All you do is drive away from town for about 5 miles, then you drive up the mountains on amazing roads for 20 miles and you reach the highest peak of all of the Smoky Mountains.
The sign was an understatement…
…because the roads were AMAZING.
Places to stop and sight-see.
Like this stream where I posed for this sick hero shot. 1 second shutter btw.
The water tasted delicious; very sweet, subhanAllah. 1/320 shutter speed.
Sometimes I drove in neutral at 45 mph (see the low RPMs). It was awesome.
Imagine having a sports car there…
As you drive up, there’s amazing views and places to park your car on the trail to see the scenery. When you get to the top, you can park and stop there, or continue on a 1/2 mile hike to this thing called Clingman’s Dome, where you will be higher than all the mountains. Amazing view. Totally worth the difficult hike. Best of all, it’s FREE!
The cars were parked at cloud level.
“It was ASKING for a picture to be taken…”
Wife took this pic upside down.
Almost there.
There’s the dome.
At the top.
You seriously had to be there.
وتسير الجبال سيرا
A valley I captured with my zoom lens. SubhanAllah wish I could go there…
A bed of clouds under the moon. Like the secret
areas at the top in Super Mario Bros 3.
To be continued… (in pt3: shopping and FOOD!)
6 Comment(s)
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Awesome pics, Mashallah. What does the Arabic caption say? I recognize the word “jabal,” mountain. But the rest is unclear.
Asad | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
Asad: http://searchquran.net/quran.php?q=52:10
SaqibSaab | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
Still not sold on the Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS
Still want a Nikon D300 / D200
Btw. shutter speeds are cool, but apertures are even cooler.
Jah Rastafari | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
Jah: If I could I would get a D300 in a heart beat. However, as I did not and should have mentioned earlier, it turns out one of my uncles got me the
XSi as a wedding gift after one of my cousins (his son) read my fake "Dream Wedding Registry" post. So alhumdulillah, while you may not be sold, I am
feelin’ it!
Plus more than the body, I feel it comes down to the glass. And while I’m still just a prosumer, the XSi is more than what I need, w’alhumdulillah.
Also, regarding aperture, I’m still learning. Right now got shutter speeds and ISOs a bit down. Soon onto the world of aperture adjustments! I’ll have to consult with you on that one…
SaqibSaab | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
Man these pics are awesome. The sky is so blue. The mountains remind me of Makkah and Madinah.
Shaykh Tahir Wyett in Madinah said that your nafs is like a wild horse, it needs a strong and patient rider to tame it.
Faiez | Aug 24, 2008 | Reply
I did some bumping up of the contrast to make the pics more stronger in colors. However it was nothing crazy. Alhumdulillah the pics turned out nice, and the key is to take pics at Asr to Maghrib time; that’s when pics come out awesome. We specifically went later in the day for this reason.
SaqibSaab | Aug 24, 2008 | Reply