Early Voting Results: Fall Colors Are A Hit

It's peak season for fall colors in North Carolina, and this weekend tens of thousands of tourists will be flocking to the mountains and High Country to take in the brilliantly-colored leaves. But it almost wasn't so.

This summer's record heat and drought conditions in North Carolina threatened to turn Mother Nature's big leaf show into a big disappointment. By mid-September, tulip poplars were already beginning to drop their bright yellow leaves, and experts were anticipating that this season's red colors would be dull and muted. But leaf expert and Appalachian State University Biology Professor, Howie Neufeld says the recent cool mornings and below normal afternoon temperatures may have turned things around.

The self-described Fall Color Guy spoke with WFDD about this year's peak season, and where to go for the best views. 

When exactly is peak fall color season?

And so last weekend we began to see some really good colors. You could see that it wasn't quite at the peak, but right now, here at Tuesday and Wednesday, and maybe Thursday, this is going to be the peak, but it will last through this weekend. And so, [in] my opinion, this coming weekend is the best for the Boone, Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain area. And I've been looking at some web cams too, like in the Pisgah [National Forest], down into the Highlands area and Joyce Kilmer [Memorial Forest], and they're looking about at the same point. As long as you're at the 3,000 to 4,000 [foot elevation] range, you're going to see some good color this week and this coming weekend.

On the quality of the colors he's seeing this year

We thought that maybe those high temperatures [this summer] would dull the red colors, but people are reporting—and I'm seeing it in places—that actually, the red colors like the red maples, and the sour woods, and sassafras, and black gums are actually coming out quite nicely. In fact, the color intensity is pretty good which means we probably have a pretty good fall color season. We had just enough rain to prevent us from going into really severe drought, and so I think the trees are holding onto their leaves long enough, and now they're starting to color up pretty nicely. So, I'm thinking it's going to be somewhere in the 6-8 range if you were to rate color on a 1-10 scale, I think it would be somewhere in that 6-8 range, which is pretty good I think.

On leaf watching in the Piedmont Triad region

Peak season this year is delayed by about a week everywhere because of the heat. Usually down in the foothills as you come down off of the mountains, that's going to be peaking toward the end of October, and because things are late this year, it may actually go into the first week in November. When you get down to Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, and so on, that will probably peak sometime in November, probably after the first week of November even down to Thanksgiving.

Neufeld cautions fall color seekers that this will be the most visited weekend for the mountains. Those areas will be heavily trafficked leading to long delays entering the park areas with the best views. He suggests considering less well known spots like Elk Knob State Park, or Cascade Falls on the Blue Ridge Parkway just north of  Highway 421. He says to avoid the crowds, the best times for traveling to fall favorites like Grandfather Mountain are either during the weekdays, or early in the morning on weekends.