This week fall colors were at peak on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Laura is in Washington State this weekend, and I didn’t want to miss the colors, so I finished up my chores early this morning and headed north.
Our normal path is to drive up 276 to Brevard, drive through Pisgah Forest, then take the Parkway eastward to Asheville. I hoped that by reversing that route I would get to the Parkway faster. As I drove up past Tuxedo and Hendersonville I was already seeing quite a bit of color. I had to resist the urge to stop at every bright patch of yellow or red.
As I had feared, there was quite a bit of traffic on the Parkway itself. However, things moved smoothly, so it wasn’t too bad. I stopped at many more overlooks than I normally would. The colors were quite nice, and I took lots of shots.
Pisgah Mountain proper was already past peak. Most of the leaves had already changed to brown, but, you could still look down on color from the overlooks.
I rode past the intersection with 276 for a couple of miles so that I could get shots of Looking Glass Rock, then headed back to the intersection. I took a leisurely pace down 276 through the national forest, stopping only when I got to Looking Glass Falls.
As one might imagine, the falls were a zoo. I managed to park and took the camera and tripod down for shots. The falls are difficult to shoot in the afternoon because the falls themselves are shaded, while the upper area is bright. Parts of my shots kept getting blown out. I really needed a gradient neutral density filter to make it work right.
I drove on into Brevard and got an afternoon cup of coffee, then headed toward Greenville. I took the detour toward Pretty Place Chapel, but it was closed for a wedding. I had similar luck at Caesar’s Head, where there was so much traffic that there were rangers out directing traffic. I decided to skip it and head on home.
Below is a slide show from the trip…
great shots, Tom. You describe a crowd like I experienced a week prior. I passed right by the falls because of all the traffic.
The Graveyard Fields stop is the one I’ve missed for years due to the excessive numbers of visitors. Nowhere to park.
A fun thing to do at Looking Glass is to sit with your sweetie on the bench to the left of the steps descending to the falls, and just soak it in for a half hour or so. Did that back in the summer, and the memory will be with me for a long time.
I was going to drive up to Graveyard Fields, but when I saw that things were past peak at Pisgah (how’s that for alliteration?) I didn’t bother.
Ed – I imagine the crowds would be worse on a Saturday. It was a little later in the day when I got there – bad, but no worse than I’ve seen at other times.