Fall color report for late October 2008 in the Great Smoky Mountains national park

Late October in the Great Smoky Mountains national park is peak for color in the higher attitudes in both Tennessee and North Carolina and the fall color in the leaves are working their way down from the mountain peaks slowly down to the valleys.

There a many reasons why the Great Smoky Mountains national park is so fantastic in the autumn to see the leaves change color in October and November. 2 reasons are that there are more than 100 species of trees in the park and that there is more than 4,000 feet in elevation range from the mountains tops the valleys.

The result of all of the species of different trees all in one place that change color sis that they will all change colors at different times, in different shades and with different intensities. Add into this great diversity of color and timing of the peak of each type of trees leaves and add in the major changes in elevation and you have a leaf season that starts in early October and you can find great color until mid or late November.

Cades Cove in the picture above taken yesterday is not even close to having peak beginning on the valley floor. The deer and coyote are sporting their winter coats and the bear are busy collecting acorns and eating as much as they can to take them through the winter.

The Great Smoky Mountains has many other sections in the park and we will take you through the best place to see the fall colors right now on the Smokies and where they will be.

Once of the best places to take a hike right now in the Great Smoky Mountains national park to see the fall colors is in the higher elevations by Cove Mountain, Wear Valley and Round Top trail that will take you all the way to the Townsend Wye, of course you don't have to hike in far to see great sights.

As you can see by the picture of the bright red leaves on the tree the colors are already stunning. There are also bright yellows and mixes of orange, light yellow and still plenty of deep green of trees which have not changed yet, rhododendron and some yellow pine.

Get off Little River Road at the Metcalf Bottoms picnic area and take the bridge over the river and keep going uphill until you reach the trailhead parking on either round top on the left or the Hiking Trail to Little Greenbrier on the right. Both trails will be great for weeks.

Another section of the national park close to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge is Elkmont section pictured above where a lot of the logging operations took place prior to the formation of the national park.

Since the bottom of Elkmont is one of the lower elevations on the park you are just going to see the start of the color changes here right now. Elkmont has many great hiking trails and they will all take you to higher elevations where the color is better.

One of the nicest and easiest hiking trails to take in Elkmont to see the fall colors is along the Little River Trail. Here you will see the yellow and golden brown leaves already on the trail floor and floating on the river alongside the trail. Giant rock boulders in the river form many small waterfalls and the higher up you hike the better the color becomes.

This is a very easy smooth trail that was a railroad grade and logging road so it is very easy to hike. You do keep on climbing though the further you go in and if you take the Goshen Prong branch of the trail you will reach the peak of the park on the Appalachian Trail where you will find amazing fall colors.

Between Elkmont and Cades Cove just after the Townsend Wye you will find the turnoff to taker you to Tremont - another section of the park that used to have large logging operations.

In the lower elevations of Tremont you will also find most of the trees have not started to change colors but there are some very pretty patches of yellows and reds that are growing more intense by the day.

The gravel road in Tremont travels along the river. Get out on some of the pull outs and just soak in the beauty of this area.

The gravel ends up at a trailhead parking area. Even if you don't want to hike far, just go in 15 minutes and sit at the bench and take in one of the nicest waterfall cascades in the park. Again this is a relatively smooth trail that keeps climbing and the higher you go the better the color is.

Expect this trail to be great until mid to late November!