15: Where we're located

Here, copied from http://gulahiyi.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html is an old topo map showing Panther ("Painter") Knob, and our house, which is one of the dots I can see near the tippy-top of a steep drainage, below the headwalls..."

We're in the Appalachians, nestled high up in a steep-walled cove called a holler, not on "good land" if farming and easy access is what you want. We have lots of water with two creeks and two springs on the property, and tons of shade because we face North. Our unique ridge is perpendicular to the tail end of the Nantahalas, inclusive of Wesser and Wayah Balds and being the Cherokee "Land of the Noonday Sun."

Here's a photo from http://www.thesouthernhighlandreader.com/tag/balsam-gap/ that shows closer up the ridgeline we look straight across toward.

We look off of our deck at the Plott Balsams and the Great Balsams, where the Blue Ridge Parkway rises over 6000 feet. Classic rivers and world-class steep creeks surround us, draining a multitude of other hollers and high plateaus like Panthertown Valley and the Highland/Cashiers/Toxaway areas.

From just a bit higher up the logging road above the log cabin, we can look off to the Northwest and see Clingman's Dome, the highest point on the Appalachian Trail and also in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and the second highest point in North America, East of the Rockies. This photo from the top of Clingman's faces East, so somewhere in there you maybe could see the slopes above our house, if you knew where to look:

Stunning sunrise at Clingmans Dome by Carl Alan Smith, posted on the GSMNP Facebook page.