October 8, 2015 - Rough Ridge and Linn Cove Viaduct areas of the Parkway

I got a good tip from Charles Hardin saying there was some nice color around Rough Ridge, so that's where Cindy and I headed today.  We took the quicker way up which was via I-40, US70, then US221 to Linville.  Fall color has picked up some above Linville Caverns from the last time we were up there and so has color on the Parkway.  I was almost going to pull over when we passed Beacon Heights because the color on Grandfather Mountain was excellent.  We wanted to get over to Rough Ridge, so we saved that for later.  Charles was right - the color is really good past Grandfather.  Lots of peak trees, but still some green also.  We lucked out when we got to the parking area (MP302.8) and got the only parking spot available.  The color was fantastic with a lot of peak trees, but still some green also.  There should still be peak color for the next week, but the peak trees now will loose their leaves as the greener one go to peak.  Here are some photos from the trail. The light wasn't the best, but we had enough time to wait for the few breaks in the clouds that we had.

We had decided that we were going to take the Parkway back to Asheville to check out the color situation along the way.  We had to pull over at a couple of places near the Viaduct, and also did pull off at Beacon Heights for the shot of Grandfather.

Linn Cove Viaduct

looking back at Rough Ridge

Grandfather Mountain

From Beacon Heights to Linville there are some nice areas of color along the road, but certainly not peak yet.  The same was true for most of the rest of the way back to Asheville - areas of peak color and a peak tree here and there, but still mostly green.  Yellow was the most dominant fall color. I was hoping we were going to be able to see the Blacks at the Black Mountain Overlook, but the sun was right at us and the mountains looked, well - black.  We could see that the slopes around Mount Mitchell had color, but we didn't stop for a shot.  The color along the Parkway picked up, but in the area where there are a lot of evergreens, the leafs on the deciduous trees were either gone or mostly brown.  The same was true in the Craggy Gardens area, but color picked up on the slopes on the way down the mountain with a lot green towards the bottom.  On the way down to Asheville, some of the slopes had a lot of color, but it was very dull. This could have been because of the light, tho. Below is a video I put together from today's festivities. You can click the title to take you to the full size video on YouTube.  We should be back out somewhere this week end, so stay tuned!