What is it that pulls us to the calm expanse of a mountain lake? Our contributing photographers offer some wonderful visual hints.Price Lake, at Milepost 297 of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway, reflects perfectly the profile of Grandfather. Photographer Brent McGuirt had waited several fall mornings for the mountain and the fog to coalesce for this shot, as the golden light struck the face of Grandfather Mountain and a cool morning mist hovered over the lake.This moonrise shot was taken in the Lake Keowee community of Keowee Key, South Carolina, home of photographer Russ Carlson The clear waters of the lake are fed from the streams and creeks running down from the Blue Ridge Mountains. The lake offers swimming, boating and bass fishing.Sherando Lake, near Stuarts Draft, Virginia, has beautiful hiking trails and sunrises as the sun crests over the Blue Ridge. The morning that photographer Brent McGuirt was there, he waded in, waited a few minutes and got this shot of the mackerel clouds reflecting in the lake.Dewey Lake is located near Prestonsburg in eastern Kentucky’s Jenny Wiley State Park. The lake stretches for 18 miles and covers 1,100 acres of the park’s 2,800 acres. Jenny Wiley State Park was named after Virginia (Jenny) Wiley, a pioneer woman who was captured by American Indians in the late 1700s, escaped and made her way home.The easy 0.9-mile loop walk around Bass Lake at Cone Manor (North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 294) is a treat any time of year. On a summer day when the clouds and the manor house reflect in the water, it is simply spectacular.The photo is taken at Lake Burton in Moccasin Creek State Park, Clayton, Georgia. The canoes, sunset and reflection called out for the tripod.Superb water quality and sheer sandstone cliffs make Summersville Lake in Nicholas County, West Virginia, a unique place to visit. This intimate piece of the lake is called Pirate’s Cove, and attracts kayakers and photographers alike.This drone’s-eye view of Watauga Lake in Carter County, Tennessee was taken near the Butler Bridge looking east into Johnson County. Nestled in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee, Watauga is the highest-elevation lake on the TVA system, at 1,959 feet above sea level. Photographer Ryan Rice has been visiting it and admiring its beauty since he was a young child.
When it officially opened in 1940 — in the depths of the Jim Crow era — Green Pastures was likely the first U.S. Forest Service recreation area in the nation constructed for African Americans.
Veteran forester John Scrivani dedicated his career to restoring American chestnut trees — and helped lay the groundwork for the effort’s next generation.
With the likes of Douglas Fairbanks, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong performing live, the little city with the highest per capita income in the U.S. was a national hotspot for entertainment.
