I See Dead Maple

I was really hoping to take some great photos on our recent trip to western NC. You know the kind…the full page spread of lush red and gold leaves. When we drove through Asheville, I really got my hopes up because the trees were still in decent shape. However, about 15 miles west of Asheville, most of the trees had already lost their leaves. I knew that we would be pushing it heading west so late in the season but due to some scheduling issues, this past weekend was our first opportunity to get away. There wasn’t too much fall foliage left where we were staying in Sylva or Cherokee. I was pretty beat up about it and it took me a few hours to get the sulking out of my system. The next day we headed over to Townsend, TN and found a road called the Foothills Parkway and it didn’t disappoint as there was more color there than anywhere on our trip. We even found a half-mile trail to Look Rock which I’ll write about soon. The views were majestic and the color was amazing. Our next Fall getaway to western NC/eastern TN will be next mid-October to make sure we hit the leaves at the peak of the season.

Western NC when I was being mopey:



Eastern TN when I saw some color: