Fall Foliage Road Trip (the less travelled National Parks)

by ccue on November 18, 2021

Fall foliage has always been a sight high on my travel wishlist. Last year, we almost went to Vermont for that, if not that Californians needed to be quarantined for a week or two. The Vermont airbnb host even offered to buy us groceries so we could stay inside the airbnb to quarantine. What was the point of visiting without the ability to go out?

This October, we combined the desire for road trip and fall foliage into one, visiting three National Parks across three states (Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee). It has been a road trip of over 1800 miles of scenic drive with fall colors in abundance. There has been so much to see along the way. We have allocated more time than many, but still felt quite rushed. Appreciating beautiful things takes some slow down. We were so lucky to witness the beauty and diversity of fall colors.

To many, fall colour is about the beautiful bright red maple leaves. It is so untrue. Autumn is so much more diverse with the many shades of yellow, orange, red and even purple. When the altitude goes above 6000 feet, most colours yield to the evergreen trees such as fir, pines and oak. Every year, the fall colour is also different depending on the temperature, the rains, and many other factors. Within one season, everyday the colour is different. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it is estimated that 13 trillion leaves will fall during autumn. The grandness of nature is beyond words. We run out of superlatives to describe the beauty of the fall colour.