Peak Leaf Color Season Dates In Cades Cove and the Great Smoky Mountains for 2012

Autumn in the Smokies is breathtaking at peak leaf season and it look like our predictions for 2012 fall peak color were right on target and better yet, the weather has so far been conducive to more great color which should be around into November!

Where should you go to see the best fall color right now? Right now, the fall color views are from the very highest elevations in the Great Smoky Mountains. For example , there is still color which can best be seen along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Foothills Parkway near Cosby and the Parkway near Walland and Townsend, and of course, all along Newfound Gap Road between Gatlinburg and Cherokee.

Just look at the picture of the fall color on Newfound Gap Road above taken yesterday at the Carlos Campbell overlook about 4 miles from the city limits of Gatlinburg Tennessee.

As you can see, there are still plenty of light greens and yellows higher up Mount Le Conte and out into the Greenbrier and Sugarlands valley so there will be plenty of color for weeks to come.

The drive is still nice along the highest parts of Newfound Gap Road US 441 where you can look down to the great color unfolding beneath you. You should be able to enjoy this spectacular view of the peak fall foliage in the Great Smoky Mountains national park for at least the next 2 weeks.

The best time to photograph the great fall color high up in either the Great Smoky Mountains national park or along the Blue Ridge Parkway with its entrance that is near the brand new Oconaluftee Visitor Center is the first hour and a half after sunrise and before sunset.

Another great place to catch sunrises and sunsets where you can look down on great peak fall color right now is along Clingmans Dome Road and especially at Clingmans Dome itself. The cloud formations along can be breathtaking, throw in some great Smokies fall foliage with bright color and perfect lighting and you have the picture of a lifetime.

Fall Peak Color in Cades Cove

Considered one of the most picturesque places in the Southeastern United States, Cades Cove is an incredibly popular placer to drive, hike or bike the 11 miles to see fantastic fall color. It is also a great place to see our famous black bear, white tail deer, turkey and a host of other wildlife.

Since Cades Cove ranges in elevation from around 1,400 feet on the valley floor to the more than 5,000 feet on some of the peaks that look down into the valley, the peak time to see fall color this year in Cades Code started more than a week ago and there will be very good color visible for the entire month of October.

Give yourself plenty of time to drive around Cades Cove during peak leaf season. The drive that normally takes an hour or 2 can now take 3 to 4 hours. Want to avoid the leaf peepers during peak season in Cades Cove? Come first thing in the morning on weekdays. Best bear sightings at that time too.

If you are looking to photograph great color in Cades Cove around the historical log cabins that dot the valley floor, the best color will start be around next weekend and may hold out for the rest of the month.

As you can see by the picture taken last night near Forge Creek Road in Cades Cove, only the early color changing trees have leaves in full color near the cabins.

Peak Leaf Season in Wears Valley
and The Brothers Cove Mountain Resort

Wears Valley is an area of the Smokies that borders the national park on the Tennessee side and is between both Pigeon Forge and Townsend TN, which is close to Cades Cove.

Both Wears Valley and Cades Cove are very similar concerning geography and when the leaf season falls at peak. The difference is Wears Valley is outside the national park so there are shops, restaurants and of course great cabins for rent in the Wears Valley area.

The most exclusive location in the Wears Valley area is the Brothers Cove resort. This secluded mountainside community looks out at Bluff Mountain, which is not yet at peak and runs from about 700 feet in elevation all the way up to 1,700 plus feet. Color is not in yet and the peak will be around 28th of October.

We will survey next the ridgeline communities such as Chalet Village, Ski Mountain and Ober Gatlinburg in Gatlinburg and Shields Mountain outside Pigeon Forge.

More About Peak Leaf Season in the Great Smoky Mountains:

• Peak Leaf Color Season Dates In Cades Cove and the Great Smoky Mountains for 2012
• Peak Leaf Season Dates For Fall of 2012
• Smoky Mountains Fall Color Season: Where and When To See the Best Leaves In 2010

Peak Fall Colors Smoky Mountains: Where and When for 2010

If you are looking for the best fall colors set off by a backdrop of stunning mountains such as the Smokies, now is the time to book a leaf peeping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains for the best autumn colors of 2010.

The Great Smoky Mountains encompass such a huge area with lots of different trees showing different colors such as sugar maples, sweet gum, oak, beech, hickory, walnuts, dog wood, tulip poplar and more than a hundred other trees and bushes that will amaze you with their dazzling colors for many weeks.

Some of the best fall colors of the Smoky Mountains are just starting to show in the highest elevations such as the leaves along Newfound Gap Road pictured above in the Great Smoky Mountains national park yesterday. The hot reds, oranges, peach colors and salmons have yet to come out up there.

Just a few days ago, everything was deep green with just a hint of some light greens and a flash of red or deep burgundy from sweet gum and dogwood.

Now the ridgeline's and peaks are highlighted with yellows, reds and oranges which are quickly starting to spread down from little patches to the valleys and hollows throughout the Smokies.

Since the color starts in the higher elevations where it is cooler, the best auto tours to see the leaves change colors right now are along Newfound Gap Road especially above 3,000 feet, the Blue Ridge Parkway which borders the Great Smoky Mountains national park, The Foothills Parkway East by Cosby just outside Gatlinburg, The Foothills Parkways West outside Townsend near Cades Cove past Pigeon Forge and Wears Valley and the infamous Tail of the Dragon.

North Carolina with its slightly higher elevation and cooler temperatures is a about a week ahead in its fall colors than that of the Tennessee side of the Smokies.

Cades Cove in Tennessee has some really good leaf color right now when you look up at Rich Mountain and Gregory Bald however, you may want to take a ride instead this week and next to Cataloochee Valley (Pictured above yesterday) just outside Maggie Valley.

In Cataloochee right now you can see better fall colors, and you can see up close as many a 60 elk in a day during what is now rut season. This is the time of the year when elk which have been introduced back into the area have their mating rituals which include loud bellowing called bugling between the males (bulls) back and forth which echoes in the valleys.

Female elks called cows are still nursing their young calves born this year. The calves still sport their baby spots as their longer winter coat is now growing in. Elk are very social animals that gather and interact with one another within the harem - fascinating to watch and you can get fantastic photographs such as the one taken below last week.

Just as Cades Cove has historic structures, so does the Cataloochee Valley. There are a handful of structures you can explore built in the late 1800's and early 1900's including a church, a schoolhouse and historic home sites.

A 5-mile round trip hike into Little Cataloochee reveals 2 very old log cabins from the 1800's, an apple house and another beautiful church. Al of the hike is right now under a canopy of green and fresh fall colors, which will be peaking next week and should last the month of October.

You will also find in Cataloochee there are miles of hiking trails and some of the best fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains in streams and creeks littered with bright orange and yellow leaves.

The acorn crop which is huge this year is moving lower so seeing black bear in a week or so will be common in the valley. Best time to see the black bear and elk is close to sunrise and the last 2 hours before sunset.

While it is 73 degrees in right now in Gatlinburg, during autumn in the Smokies the weather can change real fast in the Smoky Mountains. Last week there were 2 light dustings of snow on the peaks and the best place to see early snow and the best fall color of any roadway right now in the road off Newfound Gap up to Clingmans Dome.

Up at Clingmans Dome you can also enjoy the Christmassy smell of the fir trees and great views of the national park> You can look down on the cities of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. This is also one of the best palaces to watch the sunset or sunrise so make sure to bring a camera!

The Smoky Mountains are always awesome, but this time of year, no one can beat the beauty of the Smokies showing off its fall peak colors. Stay tuned as we track the best of fall colors in the Smokies for you.

Though some of the best cabin rentals in the Smokies have been booked for month, there are a few left and you can take advantage of the last minute rentals 10% discount on some of them right now!

Gatlinburg Fall leaf color report for Mount Le Conte in The Great Smoky Mountains

It's autumn in the Great Smoky Mountains and the peak leaf season has started in the higher elevations of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and we still have a week before the colors starts to saturate the lower elevations.

The picture below of the city of Gatlinburg was taken on the first overlook on the Gatlinburg Bypass; the road that connects the Spur section of the Foothills Parkway with the Great Smoky Mountains national park. As you can see there are little spots of bright leaf colors in the trees in the higher and mid elevations and the lower elevations of the Smoky Mountains are still a beautiful deep dark green color.

One of the most prominent features of the Great Smoky Mountains that can be seen from as far away as Sevierville and towers over the beautiful scenery Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg Tennessee is Mount Le Conte.

This stunning triple peak mountain is the second tallest in the Great Smoky Mountains national park and is 6,593 feet tall is slight bit shorter than Clingmans Dome which stands at 6,643 feet.

You can clearly see in the picture below that Mt Le Conte's peak is not sporting a snow dusting yet but a deep green of the pines and firs found on the top of this awesome mountains.

There a 5 ways to hike up to the peak of Mt Le Conte. You can hike up to Mt Le Conte from 3 trails in the Roaring Fork Section of the Great Smoky Mountings national park by the City of Gatlinburg. These hiking trails are The Rainbow Falls Trail, the Trillium Gap Trail and the Bull Head Trail.

The other 2 ways to access the peak of Mt Le Conte is from Newfound Gap Road. Your choices are the Alum Cave Hiking Trail on the Tennessee side and via the Boulevard trail off the Appalachian Trail access from the Newfound Gap parking area on the North Carolina and Tennessee border.

Right now Newfound Gap Road is the best road in the Great Smoky Mountains national park to see the best fall colors in the trees. The higher you go the better they are but color can now be seen on the lowest part of the road near the national park headquarters at Gatlinburg.

Clingmans Dome Road which connects to Newfound Gap Road near the Newfound Gap parking area is 7 miles of twists and turns by colorful trees as it climbs up to Clingmans Dome offering stunning fall color views and vistas that allow you to see range after range of mountains. The fall colors are still good here today but will fade faster on Clingmans Dome Road as it is the highest elevation road in the national park.

Since we had just checked the fall colors by going up to Mt Le Conte on the Trillium Gap trail a few days ago with a stop off on Brushy Mountain which overlooks Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, this report was made by hiking up the Alum Cave Trail off Newfound Gap Road.

The Alum Cave hiking trail is the most popular way to reach the peak of Mt Le Conte and is best in spring through fall as it ices up in the winter and can be quite dangerous.

The Alum cave hiking trail takes a course through various elevation gains, along river beds, past a natural arch you must climb through, past a huge cave and over peaks and along shear edge cliffs so the views are stunning and passing so many features you get a chance to chase the fall color longer than on most trails.

While some of the leaves on the trees along the start of the trail have fallen, it still has a tremendous feeling of green with all of the Rhododendron bushes that are along the trail. Bright yellow leaves are still in the trees and orange can be seen interspersed with tall green trees.

The first part of the Alum Cave Trail is rather level even though it is always slowly climbing up the valley alongside the river. Make sure to take pictures along the way of the old trees, the twisted and worn tree roots and the stream with crystal clear water and pretty small waterfalls.

After almost a mile and a half of hiking you cross a log bridge with a handrail and you are now at the Arch Rock a natural structure that you must climb up through. Don't worry stairs and handrail cables have been added. The steps are usually wet so hold onto the handrail cable as you climb up and down the Arch Rock.

Once you pass through Arch Rock the elevation gain while hiking increases in intensity and the views will become spectacular. Long vistas and beautiful fall colors great you at every twist and turn of the trail. Expect some bright reds, some oranges and lots of brilliant yellow fall leaves and deep greens of evergreens - hemlocks, spruces and firs.

At about 2 miles into the hiking trail you arrive at Alum Cave. Stop and stay here for a while and soak in the views as well as the beauty of the cave its self. Not only have rare minerals been found here at the cave - not found anywhere else in the world, this is also the site of an historic civil war battle which made its way down the mountain hillside all the way to the city of Gatlinburg call "White Oak Flats" at the time.

As you can see by the picture of the cave the fall colors are clearly showing at this elevation and the sunlight during the day will change the colors in the rocks around the cave.

Often water drops down from about the cave and in the late fall and wintertime will form ice. Be careful as when a day becomes warmer or in high wind, icicles have been known to come crashing down on the trail below.

From here you are another 3 miles to the peak of Mt Le Conte and the views become more impressive as the climb becomes more intense and difficult. Red and yellow bushes in the foreground give way to yellowing trees in the valleys set of by the deep greens of the evergreens and trees yet to turn.

So far none of these areas are past peak but some are just at peak fall colors right now. The walking is tougher here with wet rocks and narrow walkways. While you must watch where your feet go on this section of the Alum Cave Trail, you have to stop and take in the views constantly.

The closer you closer to the top the more spruce and fir trees you will encounter. These trees will stay deep green year round and look incredible later in fall and in winter when covered by with a dusting or a deep coat of snow.

As you climb higher you will also see more deep and light green moss on the sides of the trail and the trees will become shorter. In here it fells like Christmas year round with the beauty of these natural Christmas trees and the heavenly scent of them that perfumes the air.

By the time you reach the peak of Mt Le Conte there is only fall colors to appreciate on the distance as what few trees have that live this high up that change color have done so almost a month ago.

Make sure to check out both the cliff side area as well as Myrtle point on the other side of the peak of Le Conte. By now you will be thankful if you packed a hat, glove and a coat as it always is windy and cold up here!