​I photographed this scene just a short time after capturing ‘Sunset at the Gap’, but the mood had shifted into something softer and more serene. The light stretched across the sky in quiet layers of orange, lavender, and rose. The pines on either side formed a natural frame, gently guiding my eye toward the fading valley below. The depth of the Smokies revealed itself in soft folds, each layer dissolving into the next as night slowly approached. A cool stillness settled over the mountains as the last color of the evening brushed the distant ridgelines. Standing there in the stillness of early evening, I felt the day easing to a close.