Every year in early November I like to visit the Hickory Nut Gorge. It is on the eastern slope of the Continental Divide, and so a good thousand feet lower than most of the valleys in Western North Carolina. As such, the area is one of the last to experience glorious fall colors. You can count on the peak being somewhere between the 1st and the 14th.

I made two trips this year (2020), the first on November 4th and the second on November 9th. Everything was vibrant and pretty on the 4th, but there was still a lot of green left. So I gave it a few more days, and was rewarded with quite a change in appearance. It’s quite amazing how quickly things change.

Visiting many features as I normally do, you will see from the galleries below that I had stops at Morse Park, the beach at the Inn and Spa, The Flowering Bridge, Hickory Nut Falls, the Rocky Broad River, and the Rumbling Bald Trail Access. These photos are limited to the southern portion of the gorge.

I’ve divided the pictures into two galleries, on each of the days I visited, so be sure to peruse each one. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoy!

November 4, 2020

November 9, 2020

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.

Fall color isn’t always where you expect to find it.

Quick story: The assignment, years ago, was to do a story on fall color at Yosemite National Park. Got there, and everything Yosemite was supposed to have was present that day in mid-October: Half Dome, El Capitan, waterfalls, all of it.

And from Glacier Point, one of the world’s great overlooks and the logical place to spot anything resembling fall color in Yosemite — no fall color. So we asked a ranger, Where is the very best place to see fall color? He winced.

“People come up to me all the time, and they look around and they say, ‘We came for the fall colors. Where are they?’ And I (point toward Nevada and) go, ‘That way, about 3,000 miles.’ ”

What follows is information on fall color at a few of our 59 official U.S. national parks. This isn’t a comprehensive list — yes, we know about the color at the Tetons and Hot Springs and whichever other park we’ll be accused of overlooking. But this curated collection spanning coast to coast is a good place to start. Peak color times are variable; check the park websites in season for color updates.

Learn where and when here…