Shenandoah National Park

Blue Ridge Texture by Todd Henson

Blue Ridge Texture

Very near the white trilliums I spoke of in a previous post, I found this section of cliffside along Skyline Drive, the road over top the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park. Something about the color and texture drew my attention, as often happens with this sort of scene, busy as it is. The day began overcast and ended in storms, and this photo was created in that brief moment of transition between the two.


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My First White Trilliums - Shenandoah National Park by Todd Henson

Blushing White Trillium

Trilliums are a very distinctive flower I’ve often seen in photos online but until now hadn’t seen in person. In late April my father and I happened to drive over Skyline Drive through a part of Shenandoah National Park while heading back home from other activities. Just after driving away from a pull-off we both noticed flashes of white in the woods and when looking closer realized it was a large number of trilliums along the forest floor. We turned around and headed back to the pull-off and I grabbed my camera and headed into the woods across the road.

Trillium all over the forest floor

There are times when I almost don’t know what to do, when I feel overloaded by what I see, taking me back to my youth when we’d visit certain large stores in Germany and find a Lego section that just stretched on and on and on. What do I focus on? There’s so much to see, I’ll never see it all. That’s how I felt around all these white trillium flowers in full bloom.

White trillium on leaf litter

The trillium and the tree

But I knew I didn’t have all day to spend here so I calmed myself and slowly began looking for those standout flowers or arrangements of flowers and carefully approached each one. As with many spring wildflowers, trilliums only bloom for a short period of time and so this was likely the only opportunity I’d get with them this year. I hadn’t planned on flower photography this day so I didn’t have my macro lens with me, carrying a single walkabout lens, a 16-80mm f/2.8-4 (thanks Alex). Thankfully it performed admirably and allowed me to create both closeups and wider views.

Unopened white trillium

Young white trillium

The white trillium, more formally known as Trillium grandiflorum, is native to eastern North America and seems most common in mountain forests, which is exactly where we found it. The flowers ranged a bit in size, though overall it’s a very large flower compared to most spring wildflowers I see. It has a distinctive shape with three white petals, three green bracts that resemble leaves, and yellow anthers at the center. The white of the petals can apparently grow pinker as they age, and I found some examples of this. There is also a specific variety of Trillium grandiflorum that is very distinctly pink and can be found in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but I didn’t see any of these on this trip.

White trillium in pink

My timing photographing these was very good as just as I walked back to the car it began raining and it wasn’t long before it was a heavy downpour with large gusts of wind. A little drizzle might have been nice to place some water droplets on the flowers but a heavy downpour with strong winds just doesn’t work well with flowers. I did photograph from the car while we drove through the storms, though, so perhaps I’ll share some of those photos in a future post.

Trillium grove

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of white trilliums. We’ve done a little research and have learned of other locations we might find these in future seasons. I very much want more opportunities to explore photographing this fabulous flower.

White trillium family portrait

Have you ever seen trilliums? Let me know in the comments below.


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Beginning of Spring in Shenandoah National Park by Todd Henson

Mountains as seen from Skyline Drive

I realized this year how great a location the mountains can be for observing the signs of seasonal transitions. My folks and I were on a day trip and decided to drive over part of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. This is the north-south road through the park and provides lots of views of the mountains and down into the valleys. We picked a fortunate time to visit in early spring when most of the trees at higher elevations were bare but at lower elevations you could see lines of color of new leaf growth. I would love to see a time lapse movie of this process as the new green growth moves its way up the sides of the mountains.

New leaf growth moving up the mountains

An alternate, vertical, view of the first image showing the new green growth moving up the slopes

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief observation of the transition from winter to spring.


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