Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee—

This is perhaps one of the more iconic locations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that are you most likely to pass through on your way to Elkmont. This is called the Longarm, a passageway that was used during the time of the logging industry was going strong during the 1900s. It was once a massive and craggy hill, but after railroad workers had blasted it with TNT and removed the debris, a safe and easy route was created to get to the nearby logging camp of Elkmont. Back in those days, Elkmont was just a “newborn” of a town, built around the logging industry. This was before the resort days.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee—-

At the top of the stairway at The Sinks, there are 2 different trails that you can take, which can lead you to the Meigs Mountain Trail, Lumber Ridge Trail, or the trail head that takes you to Tremont. This is one such trail, which I believe is the Meigs Mountain trail head.

Because why not? Lol

(via coocachew)

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee—

This beautiful set of stairs leads to the Meigs Creek trail head, which branches off into 3 separate paths. One such trail, the Meigs Mountain Trail, eventually leads you to Upper Meigs Falls. We didn’t walk on any of the trails that day, but we plan to soon!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee—

Downstream from The Sinks is the cool blue waters of the Little River, which is a major stream in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were standing on a big boulder which overlooked the river and falls and believe it or not, the water was so clear, we could see to the bottom of the river!

let-them-eat-vag:

Fuck me this is the cutest fucking duck video I’ve ever fucking seen in my whole fucking life it’s a huge fucking deal

(via an-antique-trunk)

(via an-antique-trunk)

the-science-llama:

If Earth Had Rings

First off, they would be really pretty to look at. They would also dominate the sky in both night and day at exactly the same place as they would never rise nor set. And at night you would see the Earth’s shadow swing across the rings, like in the 4th photo here.

However, life would be very different on Earth if this were the case. Nocturnal animals would have a hard time being nocturnal, as the light reflecting from the rings would illuminate the night.

Because we are closer to the Sun than Saturn is, the rings would be more rocky than ice, making them less bright but still pretty bright. In fact, you would see far less stars at night (living anywhere other than the equator or the arctic circle) because of the light pollution and not to mention ruin most meteor showers because of that.

During the day the rings would block sunlight in certain regions of the planet creating wild weather cycles and effecting plant life as well. So basically, they would be definitely pretty to look at but they would also make a whole lot of things screwy.

Illustrations by Ron Miller // io9
— Click the photos for captions

(via coocachew)

reuters:

Monster tornado devastates area near Oklahoma City

TULSA, Oklahoma (Reuters) - A huge tornado flattened an area near Oklahoma City on Monday, tearing up at least two schools and leaving a wake of tangled wreckage as a dangerous storm system threatened as many as 10 U.S. states.

Television video showed homes destroyed, cars tossed and at least one building on fire. Rescue workers were pulling third-graders from a damaged school in Moore, Oklahoma, a KFOR television reporter said from the scene.

“I have never seen anything like this in my 18 years covering tornadoes here in Oklahoma City. This is without question the most horrific,” said Lance West, a reporter for KFOR television.

There were no reports of deaths and the number of injuries remained unconfirmed after the tornado struck near Moore, in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, in mid afternoon.

“It seems that our worst fears have happened today,” said Bill Bunting, National Weather Service meteorologist in Norman, Oklahoma.

The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in Oklahoma.

Graphic: Oklahoma State University via Twitter 

staceythinx:

Some of the 14 Spectacular Basalt Formations assembled for a beautiful and informative gallery by The World Geography.

(via coocachew)