Winter at Norris Dam

Winter seems like a great time for some black and white photography, and a hike at Norris Dam provides the perfect backdrop.

So, the last time I took this hike was during the summer. It’s a nice little hike, and could even be longer, time permitting. It goes along the shore of Norris Lake, on the east side of the dam. It’s composed of a bunch of small interlocking trails that allows the hiker to tailor their trip to the amount of time available. I didn’t have the opportunity to spend a long time out there, so I just took a few trails and headed back.

Since it was winter, and gray, there wasn’t a lot of color, anyway, Therefore, I decided to be all pretentious and publish these images in black and white. I’ve done this before, because when it comes to winter landscapes in areas like this, it’s all about the texture for me.  

I also took a walk across the dam to get pictures of the Norris Dam tower. This tower is more or less in the middle of the dam and it makes it clear that this dam was completed by the TVA in 1936. There are nice views of the lake from the dam. And also, because the water was low, you could see a pattern of cracked stones along the shoreline. They don’t look completely natural, because there are regular holes in the stones, but the pattern is pretty random in appearance. Plus, different exposures to light or perhaps different plant growths, have resulted in bands of different shades of color along the shore among these stones. Whatever it is, it was interesting to study.