A 20-mile section of the Blue Ridge Parkway opened yesterday, October 23, from Milepost 285 to Milepost 305. This includes many people’s favorite spots such as Beacon Heights, Rough Ridge, and Price Lake. Color on this section of Parkway is varied depending on location.
Even the leaves have felt the effects of Helene. Many of the trees at higher elevations lost their leaves due to the high winds. However, a bit of fall color is still developing here in the High Country.
Today is our last day of Daily Fall Photos for the season. We still have some leaves hanging on here and there, but predominantly the color has moved on to lower elevations. It has been a long season with color starting in late September and changing throughout the month of October.
Last week we saw our most impressive colors at our highest elevations. Over the weekend we experienced wind that scattered some of our more vibrant leaves at the ridges of our mountains. However, there are still great colors to be found below 4,500 ft.
Well, we survived the wind this weekend and so did most of the leaves. Due to the later timing of this season, the trees did not lose nearly as many leaves in the wind gusts as they would have if color was further progressed. The weather has been cooler and color is moving along fairly rapidly now.
The weather has gotten cooler and is ideal for color change here in the High Country. Cool, sunny days help leaf color progression. Currently we are still not at peak with plenty of green left over from the summer months. However, we are seeing changes by the day.
It is officially October and we are gearing up for more color in the coming weeks. We see more pops of color every day, however, the overall color in the region is mainly green. So do not panic, there is still plenty of time to see the color changes here in the High Country with the best yet to come.
We are four days into our Daily Fall Photos and there are definitely pops of color showing up around town. However, the area is still predominantly green for the time being. We’ve been to Chetola, around Blowing Rock, and up to Grandfather Mountain.
Many of the leaves we were admiring for their show-stopping color just a week ago have now fallen and stacked up along the trails. They smell great, and are fun to crunch underfoot, however, we are past peak at Blowing Rock’s elevation.
We are halfway through the season, and we’re starting to see leaf fall as we are past peak in the higher elevations, think 4000 ft and above. However, there is still significant color in the 3000 – 3800 ft. range.
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