Fall Color Report for September 28, 2025
Today I repeated my journey from last week, but in the opposite direction, taking the Parkway from Blowing Rock down to Grandfather Mt, then coming back on Rt. 105 to Boone. I am testing my stamina now, and today, I went a short distance on the Rough Ridge Trail up to the boardwalk, but no farther. You get a great view from there, and unless you are adventurous you don’t really need to go to the top, although if you do, you have great views there.
Colors have not progressed much from my last report. We’ve had warm weather the past week and that slows down color development. But the birches and tulip poplars are peaking now, giving the roadsides a bright yellow lilt, touched by the deep red of sourwoods and some red maples, along with huckleberries and other shrubs. It’s a good year for mountain ash, which are full of very bright red berries now. You’ll find this species at the higher elevation sites. Craggy Gardens has lots of this species, as does the Rough Ridge trail.
But overall, the forests are still predominantly green, with touches of color showing up manly at higher locations. I’m getting reports of good color now at high elevations down by Mt. Mitchell, and I’m sure Graveyard Fields is colorful also.
Each weekend from now on colors will get better and next week will have more than this one, but I don’t think they will peak until two weekends from now (Oct 10), and possibly three (Oct 17), at the 3,000 - 4,000’ elevation levels.
I’m also getting concerned about the quality of this year’s fall colors. While it’s still too early to make any firm predictions, it seems we might have duller colors this fall than in previous years. This is not a holdover from Hurricane Helene, but rather, a response to the prolonged warming these past several weeks. If temperatures drop after the current tropical system moves out to sea, then we might have enough time to brighten up. None of the models have the tropical disturbance coming into western North Carolina. We may get some rain, but nothing that would cause problems for the foliage display. And even with duller colors, the foliage display is still spectacular, year after year after year!
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