justin ritchie photography

Faerie Circle // taken in near the Lake Santeetlah Dam in Western NC (just a little bit east of Joyce Kilmer Virgin Forest)

As I walked towards Santeetlah Creek I noticed a beaver in the water. All the guys with me wanted to try to follow it downstream towards its dam… until we noticed all of these butterflies on the ground dancing in a circle.

It was one of those moments that simply takes your breath away. It is magical to see a butterfly as it lands, it moves almost like a fairy or a pixie. Far more esoteric than just a regular bug. Yet to see a group of these fair beings standing together in a circle was much more than just special.

Sadly as I looked through the treeline, I could see the damage being done by the loggers returning to the area, after a hundred year hiatus. Thanks to the current US president, these protected areas were now eligible for logging again. I could almost imagine these butterflies meeting together to talk about how to get their land back, their habitat, their life.