Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

     The right ingredients are beginning to emerge, the time when cooler night temperatures and sunny days mix with rainfall to bring on a spectacular autumn color display in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

    The timing of color change and the falling of the leaves is primarily keyed by the calendar, or more precisely, the increasing length of nighttime.  As days grow shorter and nights grow longer and cooler, chemical processes in the leaf begin to paint the landscape with Mother Nature’s autumn palette.

    While the typical peak of fall leaf color is at the middle to lower elevations where the greatest diversity of deciduous trees live, color displays above 4,000 feet begin the parade of color which then moves down the mountainsides into the valleys.  The high country is still predominantly green.

    Sourwood, dogwood, maple, sassafras and birch trees are the first to make the change, turning red, orange and yellow.  At this point, there is just a hint of color change among those early fall starters.  A few trees here and there, along the roadsides and mountainsides, are in full color and dot the landscape.  Perhaps more notable now are the fall wildflowers cardinal flower, black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, great blue lobelia, skunk goldenrod, southern harebell, ironweed, and a variety of asters, as well as the bright fruits on trees and shrubs such as hearts-a-bustin.

  Suggested scenic drives:  Newfound Gap Road and Clingmans Dome Road

Suggested hikes:  Albright Grove and Sugarland Mountain Trail