STAY GOLD

ISO 100, f/20, 0.5 seconds, 19mm

  This is Lower Falls at Graveyard Fields on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Brevard, NC. This is a fantastic waterfall that is only .2 miles from the parking lot in front of Graveyard Fields. The pathway is canopied by a Rhododendron Forest that is just utterly beautiful. Lined with pink blooming Rhododendron and patches of Trillium. It was fantastic!
  Then you arrive at Lower Falls and you see a miraculous waterfall surrounded by all of these gold color rocks. As I was descending down the trail to the falls I saw this small cascade that I knew had to be a foreground in one of my images. It ended up being one of my favorites of the day.
  While processing this and noticing the gold rocks all that came to mind was the movie "The Outsiders" from the 80's. A couple of boys kill another boy in self defense and run away from town to keep from being arrested. They change their hair color to keep from being recognized and the character named "Pony Boy", played by C. Thomas Howell, changed his hair to blond. This was quite different from the "greaser" boys he hung out with. As his best friend lay on his death bead, he told Pony Boy to "Stay Gold" and keep his blond hair. Hence the title of today's post.
  We could have spent all day at this one spot, but the workshop had to move on to another spot. Hopefully, in the future, we get to return here and get to photograph it again.