Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Smoky Mountains Fall Color Season: Where and When To See the Best Leaves In 2010

The secret is out as to the best place to rent a log cabin to see the fall colors - it is the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

Sure, there are other great places to see fall colors such as Vermont, New Hampshire and Michigan, but none of these locations to leaf peep in autumn has such a wide variety of trees that change colors, elevations and micro-climates.

This means instead of having a week or two of great leaf colors every fall, the Great Smoky Mountains leaf season ranges for months! The leaves start to change color in the Smokies in the higher elevations during September and the hardwoods trees such a red oaks will have bright flaming colors in the leaves typically in November - sometimes as late as Thanksgiving!

Why does the leaf season peak last so long on the Smokies and what is the best time to see the fall colors at their peak? The fall color peak varies each year by weather and the peak for each location in the Smoky Mountains can vary by weeks compared to another location a mile or so away.

The weather of a prior spring and summer can change how brilliant the colors will be as well as the lasting power of each leaf with its brilliant color from red to oranges to yellows on a tree or bush. Add into the mix that weather during the fall can contribute to how long the peak color will last during a given year.

Changes is sunlight trigger when leaves "shut off" and go dormant for the winter and the green color in the chloroform inside each leaf in the fall fades and the yellows and orange colors now show through. Less sunlight happens each day in the fall occurs as sunset comes earlier each day and very cloudy or rainy days can trick the leaves in the trees and bushes that change color think its later in the season.

The colder weather that occurs later in autumn turns some fall leaves such as those in oak trees and maple trees changes the sugar that is left in the leaves into bight reds, purple and some salmons. The timing and duration of cold snaps can intensify, accelerate or decelerate these colors coming at the fall peak of these trees.

All of these factors combined as well as the fact that there are more different species of trees that change colors all at different times and at different colors growing in the Great Smoky Mountains and the national park than there are throughout all of Europe. With the 5,000 plus foot variation in elevation and huge differences in sunlight exposure between ridge-lines, hollows and valleys extend what should be a week-long peak for a single species of tree, to 3 or more weeks to see great leaf color in the same tree!

All of these factors together mean there is no single day or week for peak leaf season in the Great Smoky Mountains. What you can count on is a range with the month of October being most brilliant in the Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge area that includes the same basic peak season in Wears Valley, Walden Creek, Sky Harbor, Townsend, Brothers Cove, Caney Creek, Bluff Mountain, Greenbrier, Elkmont, Cades Cove, Pittman Center, Cosby and the surrounding areas in the Smokies.

Going over Newfound Gap to Cherokee, Bryson City , Maggie Valley, Asheville and Waynesville, the peak starts earlier because of a change in elevation and temperature. This way guests who stay in East Tennessee at the earlier part of leaf season in September can take a short drive to see the peak in the mountains and come back home to a cabin surrounded by the lush green privacy!

While leaf season is peaking, the acorn crop is crop is as well which means besides lots of squirrels running around eating and burying acorns this is peak season for seeing black bear in the Smokies looking to out on some extra pounds before winter when they tend to almost hibernate in what is called winter sleep.

While black bear will be active during park leaf season all over the Smokies, the best place to see them will be in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains national park at the first hour or so of daylight and the last 2 hours before sunset. As it gets later in the fall black bear may be active eating acorns and scrounging for other food all day long.

The best place to rent a cabin during the fall leaf season during peak color in the Smoky Mountains depends greatly upon what you are looking for and when you plan on staying on the Smokies. Some people want complete seclusion on their vacation while some want to be high atop a mountain ridge looking out for miles at the fall colors and still others don't want to brave steep roads and driveways and prefer to be close to a river to catch some trout while the weather is still nice.

Besides log cabins for rent in the Pigeon Forge - Gatlinburg areas of the Smokes, there are chalets for rent as well. What's the difference between a chalet and a cabin? Cabins have wood walls and ceilings and usually hardwood floors while chalets typically have walls and ceilings that are painted or wallpapered drywall. There are plenty of Pigeon Forge Chalet Rentals as well as those in Gatlinburg.

Another place to see great colored leaves in the Smokies beside the national park is in America's favorite theme park in the Mountains: Dollywood. As a matter of fact, Dollywood if often the people's choice winner of the best theme park in the US and the are plenty of great cabins for rent next to Dollywood. Peak fall colors in and around Dollywood is around the 2nd to 3rd week in October.

Therefore, with so many choices, it may not be easy to find the best place to rent a cabin on the Smokies during peak fall colors by yourself not to mention many a vacation has been ruined by a bad "rent by owner" experience so what should you do? Rent form a reputable cabin rental management company such as American Mountain Rentals or Brothers Cove and you are sure to have a great leaf peeping vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.

More About Peak Leaf Season in the Great Smoky Mountains:

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Friday, August 13, 2010

Brothers Cove Cabin Rentals in Wears Valley Web Site Improvements

It coming up to the one year anniversary when the cabin rental management of the Brothers Cove Mountain Resort located in the Walden Creek Wears Valley area just outside the city limits of Pigeon Forge Tennessee has been taken over by American Mountain Rentals of the Smoky Mountains.

In this time huge changes have been made to the property and management of this log cabin resort, which has spectacular views, whole being able to maintain secluded wooded areas that are all far away from the noise and traffic of downtown Pigeon Forge yet very close to the best of everything the Smokies has to offer.

The grounds have been cleaned up, roadways improved, the water treatment system has been improved, a more demanding cleaning and maintenance quality control has been put into place and well as a better trained and equipped staff that is on site at Brothers Cove so that their guest's vacation experience in the Smokies is beyond their expectations.

Guests renting cabins in Brothers Cove now have access to more discounts for attractions in the Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg area including discounts to both the Dollywood theme park and Dolly Parton's Splash Country Water Park which are both just minutes from Brothers Cove as well as the great Pigeon Forge dinner theater experience: Dixie Stampede.

Renters of cabins in the Brothers Cove private gated log cabin resort and homeowners alike are thrilled with the new management team, on site staff and the huge benefits of the Brothers Cove American Mountain Rentals partnership with the huge resources American Mountain Rentals is providing.









Click above to Watch the Brothers Cove video
Click Here to Download a High Quality Version


The Brothers Cove web site is linked to the new streamlined reservation system that is now offering secure online booking to all of the 40 plus cabins for rent on Brothers Cove. This real time reservation system assures renter that they will be able to reserve the cabin they want for their next vacation any time of the day or night 365 days a year. Renters also have the benefit of choosing from an additional 140 handpicked luxury cabins available for rent, at affordable prices in the Smoky Mountains area throughout Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Sevierville and the Wears Valley/Bluff Mountain area.

Brothers Cove Cabin Rentals in Wears Valley Web Site Improvements

To make it easier for you to find the perfect cabin in Brothers Cove for your next vacation on the Smokies, the web site has been greatly improved as well with easier navigation of the web site, faster loading pages, larger, more and higher quality photographs of each cabin and the surrounding area.

The Brothers Cove web site now lists more amenities and cabin features and gives you more ways that you can search for cabins such as by occupancy size, which are pet friendly rental units, and which cabins have the newly installed WIFI Wireless High Speed Internet Access.

To make the site more accessible, it is now compliant for use for use by persons with visual and mobility disabilities, it is also completely HTML compliant so that it works with the largest variety of computers, monitors and web enabled devices. The site is now located on a secure servers off site with disaster backups and servers in additional regions of the country.

All of the new advances to the web site that also has a cleaner look are great, but most importantly are how Brothers Cove, which was a nice place to take a vacation, is now even so much better. You may have noticed to at how The Smokies Blog has also changed, expect to see more changes and improvements in the coming months!

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