"John Rock Overlook, Milepost 419.4" by Nicholas Holshouser

Date Taken: 01/14/2017
Location: John Rock Overlook, Milepost 419.4

Camera: Nikon D7100
Lens: Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.8-4.5 ED
Focal Length: 13
ISO: 500
Shutter: 1/1000
Aperture: f/16
Filters: none
Exposure: Auto
How I Got This Shot: The John Rock Overlook can leave you disappointed if you don’t know that the view is down the trail a few hundred yards. From the parking area there’s not much to see – maybe there was a view back when the Parkway was opened but not anymore. Take the trail past the sign, then head left (the trail is obvious although not marked) and you will come to an opening in the trees and you are ‘on top of the world’ – but be careful because it’s a long way down so keep children and dogs in close proximity and under control. The view here is amazing in any season – you are looking out over the Davidson River valley and can see across to John Rock (the rock face above the Fish Hatchery parking area), Cedar Rock Mtn., and Chestnut Knob. To your left you can barely see Looking Glass (on a clear day) and to your right you can see Pilot Mtn. Sassafras Knob, and Deep Gap. Below you is the Daniel Ridge area, Cove Creek, and the headwaters of the Davidson River (the right fork). Lanning Ridge and Fork River Ridge frame the Right Fork of the Davidson River. But on this day you can’t see any of that because the valley is shrouded in cloud cover. When I awoke in Brevard at 6AM there was a dense cloud cover. But I guessed that the cloud cover was low and on the Parkway it would be clear. Well, this picture is typical of just that. Underneath the clouds, if you were camping at Cove Creek, you would awake to no sun and dense fog. But on the Parkway – it’s simply spectacular. On this day only Pilot Mtn and Sassafras Knob on the right are high enough to peak out of the clouds and into view. This picture was taken without a tripod and is composed from 5 shots taken in portrait orientation. I used Lightroom to merge the photos into a panorama. The high-res image is over 13,000 pixels wide, more than 10 times the size of this picture.

Visit our Blue Ridge Parkway Guide for a complete list of Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks.

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