My husband wrote a summary regarding our trip to the Smoky Mountains. He wanted to find and photograph salamanders, and I wanted to relax and see a few tourist destinations.
The original version of his summary was 14 pages long. It was a very amphibian-focused summary. “Salamander” was used 68 times. “Newt” was used 18 times, and “eft” was used 9 times.
I have shortened his summary, and I have added my comments regarding the events of the trip in blue italics.
Sunday, May 1. 2011
Sunday, May 1. 2011
Jeanie and I both truly needed a vacation by the time May 1st rolled around.
I agree!
Saturday before departure, we packed nearly all day, and finally got everything packed into our Chevrolet HHR silver low rider. I selected this hatchback in order to use the pop top to photograph salamanders in the rain.
That is a feature that they don’t show in the Chevy ads.
We traveled with our classic large blue cooler, map backpack, Jeanie’s giant suitcase, Mark’s clothing duffel bag, digital camera, film camera, and the herpetological gear. I mean what vacation would be complete without snake hooks, snake tongs, trout nets, parakeet nets, and a newt aquarium? Anticipating that we might find an adult aquatic newt, I brought a little blue lidded aquarium, which later proved to be quite useful.
Mark loaded the car with all kinds of salamandering supplies. I had barely enough room to squeeze in my suitcase and backpack. I will admit that my suitcase is large.
Leaving Colorado, the right of passage was a dry, burned out landscape of golden grass. The golden landscape didn’t begin to turn green until Topeka, where we saw the first vestiges of greenery. Although I knew the east was getting record amounts of rainfall, I was impatient to leave the arid west.
It had been dry in Colorado. Salamanders like wetter weather, and Mark and I were looking forward to seeing some greenery. By the time that we returned, Colorado was greener.
Jeanie can now attest to the unique layout of Howitzer Hill, across from Fort Riley, Kansas. One drives to the base of a mesa, where an asphalt path zig-zags up the hillside. The asphalt path is lined with limestone flagstones, and every third turn is dotted with a World War II canon. We read about the mortar shell sizes and range for the Atomic Cannon and the Howitzer. I have given this monument the nickname Howitzer Hill because of the Howitzer at the first turn, and I am not sure what its official name is. For herpetologists, one proceeds up the hill, flipping rocks until you find small mouth toads, ringneck snakes, collared lizards, flathead snakes, and the like. If you’re like Jeanie, you marvel at this surreal monument, and you say “Ooooh, noooo” when someone offers to share their bright yellow bellied ringneck with you.
We had only traveled about 500 miles before we stopped at our first herping destination. The hill had several atomic cannons, but Mark mainly wanted to flip rocks in search of salamanders. Here is a picture of one of the cannons.
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| Atomic Cannon Source: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2102 |
Jeanie dubbed Missouri one of the rainy states. Arriving at the Warrenton Holiday Inn, we were exhausted after some 14 hours of driving, and didn’t even take advantage of the swimming pool.
If it had not been raining so hard, Mark would have been tempted to go herping that night. I just wanted to sleep.
May 2, 2011 Monday
The official rainy states are Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. However it must be noted our last 100 mile trek to Chattanooga, we did pull out of the rain. On this particular day we ate both lunch and dinner at Cracker Barrel. In Denver, there is just one Cracker Barrel. Jeanie already knew that CB were headquartered in Tennessee. But it’s entirely a different matter to see them springing up everywhere.
Cracker Barrel in Kentucky and Tennessee: Good Southern food and deep Southern accents.
Tuesday, May 2, 2011
Destination Pigeon Mountain, Georgia.
By Tuesday morning, we really didn’t have a good map of Chattanooga, so I stopped at a convenient store asking directions. A southern woman very kindly gave me directions leaving Chattanooga, passing through an aging residential neighborhood, and then southern departure towards Cooper Heights. What a beautiful sunny day, driving through the valley with tree covered mountains all around. We drove down the eastern valley of the Pigeon Mountains, thinking that turn offs would be clearly marked. They were not.
We drove around in circles quite a bit. One of our destinations was Hog Jowl Road, where salamanders had been found by someone on an Internet herping forum. I thought that there might be a good barbecue stand on Hog Jowl Road.
Near the check station, we discovered a dead on the road (DOR) cornsnake. The eastern cornsnake is one of the most beautiful snakes in the region, sporting an orange Indian corn pattern of yellows, browns, and oranges. The gang got to photograph the deceased cornsnake from the roadside. It was very special to share out first photo session with my parents. Jeanie was circling at the back of the pack, never really certain if the snake would stay dead.
I stayed in the car while everyone else took a picture of the snake.
We departed on a path that would place us at the base of some rock cliffs, and all we needed was increased moisture levels. The cliff faces had been photographed by the Ohio herpers back in February so I thought I might be on the right path. I discovered my first Pigeon Mountain Salamander at a spring, perched as pretty as can be over his tiny little swimming pool. Jeanie and I spent a lot of time with this subject, thinking it might be my only Pigeon sallie of the day. Jeanie assisted with holding the tail, and pouring water on the plethodon’s back. Her primary motivation was to find the salamander quickly, photograph the little sucker, and get back to the mall.
I held the salamander down and poured water on it while Mark took pictures. Mark was happy, but the salamander was impatient to finish his modeling gig.
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| I am holding down a salamander. |
Jeanie was the person who heard the nearby waterfalls. And where there are waterfalls, there’s bound to be salamanders. I worked the outskirts of the waterfalls coming up with two more Pigeon Mountain sallies, one was a beautiful 5 inch subject. Jeanie assisted in this photo shoot by pinning his tail near the hind legs, while I photographed him.
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| In Front of a Beautiful Waterfall |
We worked our way north to the Chickamauga Battlefield. We entered the actual battlefield in the center, and meandered north and through a residential area. The visitor center was situated on the north side of the battlefield. We passed by Union and Confederate granite monuments all along the roadside.
The Chickamauga Battlefield was a sad reminder of the Civil War. It was raining very hard when we were there.
We later departed for the Tennessee Aquarium located down by the Riverwalk district. Chattanooga has rebuilt a very modern Aquarium and Civic area. The architecture featured modern buildings and wavy staircases. We were all astounded by the Tennessee Aquarium’s collection of fish, and barring the sea mammals, it is one of the best inland aquariums. There was a butterfly pavilion, freshwater fish, oceanic fish, huge sharks, rehabilitated sea turtles, sea horse, and sturgeon.
The Tennessee Aquarium is one of the best aquariums that I have ever visited.
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| Poison Dart Frog |
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| Mark's Father and Me |
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| Mark's Mother |
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| Colorful Fish |
May 6, 2011 Wednesday
Today we left for the west side of Pigeon Mountain with destination hopes of a flower hike and waterfalls.. I went back to the creek, working my way up the streambed, flipping logs and rocks. My first find of the day was a Seal Salamander beneath a 5”x5” flagstone. Like a majority of the dusky salamanders, he had dark coloration, muting the back pattern in a melanistic blend and had the characteristic dusky pointed nose. I hollered out to the gang and brought the salamander back to the parking lot. We staged the Seal Salamander(desmognathus monticola) on top of a parking lot boulder, and alternated between a granite background and a large green leaf. Once again, Mom astounded us by taking macro shots 3 feet away, whereas I had to zoom close to its face from the sunny side. The identifying characteristic of the seal salamander is the light grey speckled stomach. The spotted dusky salamander was thought to be in the area, and may well have been in the same locality, but the stomach markings are different. With salamanders, I’ve learned to study the chin, the stomach, and the venter before releasing the animal. And if your subject cooperates, you can photograph each body part. I’ve always wanted to see the Seal salamander, and have studied it in different American locations. So I was glad it turned out to be a Seal, as opposed to the Spotted.
Day 2 of Salamandering. This is where I have to admit that I could not tell the difference between the Seal and Spotted Salamanders.
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| Seal Salamander? |
After the desmognathus monticola’s release, we all headed to the flower walk. Entering the boardwalk, a meadowy hillside of purple flowers was in bloom. Most of the flowers had passed their bloom, so there wasn’t much left. But it was a beautiful area and I went down to a medium sized forest stream. Flipping another rock, I found a Long Tailed salamander (eurycea longicauda longicauda), this was a new subspecies for me/ Along the bank, two pickerel frogs (rana palastris) were discovered, jumping from the bank and burying into the creek bottom. I debated about taking off my boots and wading in for them. I had a workable net, but the photo shoot for a frog is horrible. You have but a few seconds to focus, and then the animal springs 3 feet away. I decided to let them be, but was definitely going to count the r. palustris or pickerel frog among my finds. Driving back to Chattanooga, we spotted a pond turtle from the road, and my mother had seen warblers in the area.
Mark was excited about salamanders and frogs, but I was happy to stay on the boardwalk.
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| On the Boardwalk |
Wednesday afternoon we relocated to the Rose Cabin of Asheville, which meant driving north to Knoxville, Tennessee and then down the eastern side of the Great Smoky Mountains. The only thing I remember about that stretch was the paucity of coffee shops since I always like a good Starbucks brew and the abundance of Cracker Barrels. The Smoky Mountains are huge and loom like smoky giants in the distant horizon. The Cracker Barrels were located not just at opposite ends of the town highway system, they were located at nearly every third exit.
I’ll trade you five Starbucks for one Cracker Barrel. We have too many Starbucks in Denver, but only one Cracker Barrel.
The Asheville Rose Cabin turned out to be everything the photos had promised. The small 100 sq ft house had been painted several years, and still had the dark pea green paint, and the burgundy trim. The lawn was huge and rolling just like the photo. It had an upper lawn and a lower lawn with a stand of conifers separating the downhill neighboring home. He had built a nice deck pathway to the front door, and hydrangea bushes greeted us from the driveway. The hydrangea bushes came into two colors: white and purple flowers. The cabin had a family room, a kitchen, a laundry room, two bathrooms, a master bedroom, and a regular bedroom.
I loved the cabin. Mark did a great job researching cabins and making the arrangements.
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| Mark's Parents at the Cabin |
May 5th, Thursday
I was really looking forward to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and its limited access from other roads and highways. The parkway travels through the beautiful southern Appalachian mountains, specifically the Pisgah National Forest. Our vacation came at a great time, with flowering roadside bushes, ferns in full growth, and the trees had green leaves everywhere. Looking from the “S” curving road, we could see valleys below and tree covered mountains off in the distance. The drive to Mount Mitchell, regarded as the highest mountain in the Appalachians or immediate vicinity, was a wonderful drive. We arrived at a 6600 foot elevation, witnessed the frost covered conifers, and experienced the brisk air when we left the car. We proceeded up the asphalt path to the highpoint vista outlook. On the way to the lookout, I turned a rock to discover the Black Bellied Dusky Salamander. Our subject had a grey chin and a black belly. I was glad to find this desmognathus quadramaculatus as there are many black bellied salamander names across the United States. California has a species, and I believe another region has a black bellied species. They are all different from one another, but this was both a new species for me, and my first official Black Bellied Dusky. We photographed him in the sunlight, while Jeanie did the water bottle honors. She kept him liberally wet, but didn’t volunteer any hand holding of our subject. We photographed the salamander against wooden benches, green dipnet, and the human hand. I went to this location hoping for the beginning of the Yonahlossee salamander range.. Later that morning we found 6 specimens, most of which were located beneath conifer logs. Frost crept beneath the logs and through the detritus, and each black bellied dusky came to life in the human hand.
Day 3 of Salamandering. The novelty was starting to wear off.
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| Mark at Mount Mitchell |
Before we departed from the area, I was anxious to find this mountain spring. I had hoped that the rumored red salamander was a Spring salamander. I hiked as quickly as possible to the spring, which was supposed to be close to the parking lot. I took a wrong turn and started heading uphill back to the nature path. Deciding that I had missed the turnoff, I returned the way I came, and spotted a sign down to the spring. There was a natural spring coming from a miniature cavern and a picturesque miniature stream headed down the hill. Adjacent to the spring was a mountain bog with a photograph of my target, the Spring Salamander. I worked quickly feeling my hand blindly through the miniature cavern, hoping the creature would wiggle into view. There were probably some salamanders tucked way into the dark crevices, but none came out. I started working down the tiny stream, flipping every rock and log evident to me. Coming on the last log, I flipped the log, a muddy eddy swirled in the water, but I could see a pink dorsal line through the water. Reaching for an easy grab, I pulled out my only Spring Salamander. It proved to be the only red salamander of the trip. We had hoped for the Red Salamander with its Charlie Chaplin moustache, but we never found one. The Smoky Mountain literature indicated this would be an easy find. The Spring Salamander has a notable rostral nose markings of black and yellow ranging from the eye to the nostril location. It is the only North American salamander with this feature. Other salamanders typically have a facial tiger marking extending from the eye to the back of the mouth.
I mounted my ringflash unit, and photographed the Spring Salamander on a pinkish orange granite rock and inside my CSU white cap. The granite photos are good, but once I splashed water on the stone, there was a slight camouflaging between the salamander and its background. The chameleon effect of amphibians is quicker than you might think. A big deal is made of the color changing effects of the chameleon or anole, but amphibians also change their skin color rather quickly. A frog can change its skin from black to a dark green during a single photo shoot. You pull it out of black mud, but placing it on green leaves will invariably change its color. The Spring Salamander (gyrinophilus porphyriticus) stayed on the move during the white cap photo session. But I could tell by the viewfinder, that his bright red colors were coming out. Out of 6 shots, I got three in good lighting. He was always crawling into the shade of the hat. Salamanders are nocturnal and hate the sunlight. Since I was downhill of the parking lot, I decided not to bring the Spring Salamander back, and I was also a little concerned about the forest rangers at the gift shop.
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| This is probably the Spring salamander. |
I was chillin' at the park ranger station while Mark was looking for salamanders.
May 6th, 2011 Friday
This begins one of Jeanie’s favorite days since it did not involve morning salamandering. It’s difficult to please everyone, but she enjoyed the day beginning with the Asheville Arboretum. We traveled down to the stream where there was an Azalea bush garden. The Azaleas in bloom broadcast pink, orange, peach, and white flowers. It was a pretty extensive collection with Azalea bushes from many of the southeastern states. Mom seemed to be fairly familiar with the variety of Azaleas. They do have one of the more explosive flowers with stamen popping out of the flower cup, adding bright lines of orange and pink to the flower clusters. Naturally, I eyed the stream with hopes of suitable salamander flipping material, but it was either not naturally occurring or had been cleaned during cultivation. Working our way back up the hill, we came across a five lined skink, eumeces fasciata basking on a flagstone wall. Typically, I have found the skink family beneath rocks, and occasionally in Florida, I have seen the five lined skink running along foundation walls. This was not an entirely new species for me, but it was the first breeding male I had ever seen. Since it retained the side stripe, it was not a female broad headed skink. Got to love those digital camera’s and immediate replay. We scrolled through Mom’s memory bank to determine which skink it was from my Georgia book.
I wanted to look at flowers at the Asheville Arboretum. Somehow it became Day 4 of salamandering.
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At the Arboretum |
Wrapping up the Arboretum, I consulted with the information desk in order to learn that the famous barbeque restaurant “12 Bones” was located nearby in the riverfront art district of Asheville. President Obama is rumored to have eaten at 12 Bones, and it has taken number 1, as the best barbeque restaurant in my life. I had a half rack of baby back ribs with a brown sugar rub. Friday, they had 4-6 different rub mixtures, and my half rack was astounding. It didn’t have the drippy heavy sauce of other rib dinners, it was smoked perfectly and just about fell off the ribs. Twelve Bones was open from lunch through the afternoon, but curiously wasn’t open for dinner. I’m not sure what meals other people had, but the unanimous decision was that 12 Bones cooked great barbeque meals.
Two thumbs up for 12 Bones!
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Leaving the exquisite lunch, we enjoyed the riverfront art studios. Jeanie bought a purple flower pot decorated with bottle caps. It was her souvenir memento and now sits in our front window. I was particularly fond of the blow torch resin art with melted translucent colors. I also enjoyed an upstairs gallery featuring coppery red modern art and country road paintings by the same artist. The country roads reminded me of places I’d gone in Kansas and Arizona.
I could have spent my whole vacation looking through art studios.
May 7th, Saturday
The big destination today was the Biltmore Mansion created by Cornelius and Edith Vanderbilt. The mansion was under construction for 6 yeas, and it took 18 months to select the architectural limestone motif, fireplace mantle finish, crown moldings, and trim throughout the house. Square foot for square foot, I have never seen so much ornate refinery and flourish in one home.
If the mansion wasn’t adequately impressive, the grounds were a crowning glory in openness and grandeur sweeping the North Carolina countryside. I really enjoyed the gardens, the conservatory and the photos we took of Jeanie, here there and everywhere.
I enjoyed the gardens more than the overly ornate mansion. Since the lawns were so neatly manicured, there were no snakes or salamanders for Mark to photograph.
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| Biltmore Mansion |
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| Mark in the Biltmore Gardens |
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| Here I am in the Biltmore Gardens. My arm and hand look enormous in relation to the rest of my body. |
After a two-day drive and four days of salamandering, I really needed a break. When Mark announced that he wanted to go salamandering the 5th day in a row, I told him that I wanted to go to the mall instead. I was the only shopper in the group, so Mark and his parents dropped me off.
I was so found the Regis salon, and I was so excited that there was a stylist who could cut my hair right away. I told her all about my trip and the four days of salamandering. She was so patient. At the end of the haircut, I thanked her for listening. She replied, “Honey, you just needed to veeeent”. She also said, “I will remember youuu”.
I really enjoyed window shopping. I treated myself to an iced latte. I was looking sharp in my new haircut and a blue jean jacket that I bought on clearance.
Meanwhile, Mark and his parents were in search of salamanders. They encountered quicksand and fire ants.
We had learned of a university study site for master’s students down in the bottoms. The bottomlands occur near a low point in the French Broad River. The pond system to the south of the access road was one of the clearest ponds I have every encountered. It was a healthy pond designed with a functioning inlet and outlet, and contained clear water, not dominated by duckweed and stagnation. I fumbled around the outlet side, running into quicksand type mud, sinking myself belly deep in water. Considering the false bottom was 18 inches, which was quite a sudden drop. I had already removed my wallet, keys, and watch, and spread to a prone position as soon as I started to sink. By God I was going to crawl out of there on my belly if need be. However, it is embarrassing to sink up to your stomach and saturate your clothing to your chest when you’re in such a shallow pond. I had been dip-netting among the freshwater plants, dragging my trout net through the water, hoping to scoop up an adult eastern newt. Finding nothing on the outlet side, I worked my way over to the inlet side, which had clean banks and sunny water plants in shallow water. Here, I did manage to dipnet an eastern newt, notophthalmus viridescens. This was a new species for me, and the first adult newt I had ever caught in the wild.
When I heard about the quicksand, I was doubly glad that I went to the mall instead.
Flipping tin, I had seen a sizeable Mississippi ringneck snake, the same variety as we saw at Howitzer Hill. I lost sight of this subject as I was dodging possible fire ants that were also beneath the tin metal.
When I heard about the fire ants, I was incredibly glad that I went to the mall instead.
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| Is this a newt? |
May 8, 2011, Sunday and Mother’s Day
It was wonderful to give a Mother’s Day card to Mom in person and on the actual day. We had a morning of herping at Barnardsville, NC. I still had high hopes of finding the photogenic Yonahlosee salamander and Dr. Petranka sent us to a 3500 to 4000 foot elevation to flip logs in a wooded section of the Pisgah National Forest. It was an easy and quick drive up the highway, and an asphalt road gave way to a forested gravel road. Jeanie and Dad hiked up the forest road, while Mom and I went up a creek bed looking for salamanders. Everywhere we went, had a plethora of poison ivy, and I managed only to have one minor outbreak. That was a record in minimal skin irritation for me. I used soap and water and liberal amounts of calamine lotion periodically, and I guess it really worked. We found two Southern Grey cheeked salamanders (plethodon metcalfi). These were new species for me, and relatives of the Red legged and Red cheeked jordani family. One had a skin ailment and the other had a clean body. Mom found the second one beneath a 4” log. Surprisingly, these grey cheeked salamanders lived beneath some of the smaller logs indigenous to salamanders. It usually takes a 10” diameter log sufficient for moisture retention before you find something.. The other three salamanders were all in miniature juvenile form. The little dark brassy backed salamander was the Ocoee Salamander (desmognathus ocoee) and this was both a new species and one of my wish list targets. The next small salamander was a southern red back salamander (plethodon serratus), which was not a new species but a fond friend from the Ozarks. And then the third little salamander was an eastern Zig Zag salamander (plethodon dorsalis) which was a new species, although we did photograph the Ozark Zig Zag (plethodon augustaclavus). Thanks to the enlargement photos I feel reasonably comfortable in my identifications.
Day 6 of Salamandering. I was not really in the mood for salamandering, but Mark and his parents were enjoying it. I was enjoying the beauty and quietness of the trail.
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| This waterfall was incredibly lush and green. |
We celebrated the rest of Mother’s Day in downtown Asheville, NC at an Italian Restaurant.
We went to some great art galleries, and I bought a purple skirt from a little shop. It was great to be a tourist after a morning of salamandering.
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| Shopping! |
May 9-10, 2011, Monday and Tuesday
Traveling home to Denver, Colorado took two full days. We reminded ourselves that a trip back east is a huge, though an enjoyable undertaking. We got to see my parents who were pretty active for 77 years of age, instead of the 74 that I somehow got stuck in my head.
Well, I write these journals so that when I’m 90, I can fondly remember the many wonderful things we’ve done, and the people I’ve done them with.
I agree.
Mark and Jeanie
I'm glad that you enjoyed my blog. I hope to post more herping adventures this summer.
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