I want to share with you one of the best leaf peeping experiences I’ve ever had. Every October while in grad school at NC State, I met my immediate family in the Gatlinburg area for a short reunion since it was halfway for us to drive. In 2013, we spent four days in Appalachian country for our annual autumn meet up. It was mid-October, too early for peak color, but that didn't keep us from having fun. Sadly, I knew that this trip would probably be our last for a while. I was finishing up my PhD, and to give you a sense of time, I didn’t even know about the opening for my teaching job at SFA yet.
As our great vacation came to an end and we said our goodbyes, I drove off and began to toy with the idea to take the four hour trek back to Asheville through the Smokies and then onto the Blue Ridge Parkway instead of the interstate. I-40 was a faster trip, but this scenic route offered the potential for more color and more time for autumn-flavored music like Fleet Foxes. Plus, with the completion of my graduate degree, I wasn't sure when I'd be back again to enjoy the mountains.
Driving through the Smokies, the color was hit or miss. It was the same on the parkway for a while until I hit jackpot just south of Asheville. A spectacular view of colorful foliage came out of no where like a childhood game of duck, duck, goose. Green, green, green, COLOR!!!
I was ready to jump out of my seat and out of the car; however, a parking spot didn't immediately present itself. As I passed the valley where the view opened up, I gasped the loudest gasp when I rounded the corner. "Next pull off, I'm coming back to see that again!" Then, I saw the Graveyard Fields parking lot ahead and realized that I was about to see something even better.
COLOR!!!
For those of you unfamiliar with this part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Graveyard Fields (milepost 418.8) is a popular spot along the parkway. While internet sources vary on the origin of the name, one printed reference I found stated a large fire blazed some 25,000 acres in 1925 and left only stumps. The ghosts of the trees resembled tombstones in a graveyard (Logue et al., 2010). Now, small trees and scrub dominate.
The pull-off was a flutter with people who like me were hunkering for color in a green world. As I donned my hiking boots, one lady prepared a canvas for painting while a dozen or so young hikers made preparations for a hefty hike, evidenced by their backpacks and sleeping pads.
After snapping a few—ahem, a lot—of photos in the parking lot, I headed south along the parkway. The vantage point along the roadside was much better.
Ah, heaven. After I parked, the clouds came in. It's as if their hands of vapor were reaching down to give the performing flora high fives.
The best thing about images like these is the zoom function called trails, and whether worn or blazed anew, they offer the photographer and the gardener the chance to step out from behind the camera and go see every living pixel to comprehend the picture's underlying composition.
So, I zoomed to zoom in. Time was short since it was late afternoon, but I made it far enough along the trail to feel immersed in this beautiful creation. Sorbus and Acer species provided towers of color while the lower cover was ablaze with Vaccinium and Viburnum.
Color at every layer in the landscape on this bend in the trail.
The trail through Graveyard Fields.
Another perspective of the trail.
Here you see some taller Viburnum growing out of the scrub. Note the darker purple foliage and the bluish fruit in the bottom right.
Condensation droops on the blue drupes of Viburnum nudum.
If you’re curious about the red, here is a closeup of the ember-colored foliage of Vaccinium constablaei. Thanks to renown blueberry expert Dr. Jim Ballington for the id.
Each blueberry plant was like a pixel of color in the sheet of red in the larger image I took from the parking lot.
I think this trip was the first time I really recognized that Vaccinium could have such good fall color. You can also see a faded Solidago piercing through the red.
Scattered about were also a few Cratageus with their fruit colored in their autumn regalia.
As I walked around, I soaked in as much as I could before the trip home. I recall thinking multiple times on this venture that if everyone could see this sight, they would all be naturalists or gardeners. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
I asked myself how can we as gardeners reproduce vistas like Graveyard Fields? What really made the view was diversity and repetition of that diversity. We can mass low shrubs like blueberries, scatter in a few herbaceous plants to rise up out of it and carpet the ground, and then put in a few trees for color.
Sadly, I had to leave and return to the car to finish my five hour journey back to Raleigh. But, I left so full of wonder and awe. I'm constantly amazed at how when I go into these natural places in the world how much of an impression they leave on me. And, I can’t wait to visit again.
The trail continued, but this point is where I stopped. The sun was setting, and I had miles to go.
One last look at Graveyard Fields.
Literature Cited
Logue, F. V. Logue, and N. Blouin. 2010. Guide to the Blue Ridge Parkway, 3rd ed. Mensha Ridge Press, Birmingham, AL.