The purpose of this trip was to capture Fall colors in North Carolina. We were hoping to capitalize on our scouting trip earlier in the year (see “Asheville, North Carolina May 4 – May 8, 2013”).  The “leaves” reports from North Carolina indicated we might be a few days early, but due to scheduling constraints we went anyway.

We left Gainesville early Tuesday morning October 8 and drove to Highlands, North Carolina. After we checked into our hotel we inquired about the best places to view the leaves. Numerous people told us the peak colors were along the Blue Ridge Parkway. However, due to the Government shutdown, all the pullouts were barricaded.  We decided to stay in the Highlands area.

We are glad we did as all the pictures in our “North Carolina – Fall 2013” Gallery came from these few days.

 

 

 

After lunch we proceeded to Dry Falls and spent about two hours exploring and taking pictures. Back at our hotel we inquired about good locations to take sunset pictures and received two recommendations; Whiteside Mountain and Sunset Mountain.

 

 

 

We decided to try the hike at Whiteside Mountain that night and save the hike to Sunset Mountain for the following night.  We drove 20 minutes to the Whiteside Mountain parking area and began hiking the 2 mile loop up to the observation area. Unfortunately, the sun set before we made it to the observation area.

 

 

We awoke early Wednesday morning and drove northwest on Hwy 64 towards Dry Falls.  Just as we were leaving Highlands we saw this view of the northwest corner of Lake Sequoyah.  The sun was just beginning to rise and we stayed about an hour shooting HDR photos.  This is the location of the  “Lake Sequoyah” photo in our gallery.

 

 

 

 

We then drove northwest on Hwy 64, following the Cullasaja River, past Bridal Veil Falls to Dry Falls again.

 

 

 

We had planned on driving Hwy 64 to Franklin. However, another motorist advised us that an accident ahead was blocking traffic in both directions.  We changed our plans and explored the Highlands area for photo opportunities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following two photographs are from downtown Highlands, NC.

 

 

 

That evening we went to Sunset Mountain and took numerous sunset photos (two of these are in our Gallery).

We awoke early Thursday morning, had breakfast, and then drove the 27 miles to Rainbow Falls.

 

The trail to Rainbow Falls begins in the parking lot of the Gorges State Park and is a strenuous three-mile loop hike.

 

 

 

 

The falls is a 125 foot cascading waterfall on the Horsepasture River and is one of the most beautiful waterfalls in North Carolina.

This hike concluded another successful visit to North Carolina. Even though we missed the peak colors by a few days, we still captured numerous beautiful images of Fall colors.