|
|
 |
An Autumn Color Updateby Robert Hitchman
There are over a dozen autumn color telephone hot lines around the United States. Below are some of them: Arkansas 1-800-628-8725 After making at least 15 photography trips to New England, I’ve decided that there is better autumn color to be found in Vermont than in New Hampshire or New York states. The higher, evergreen forested ranges of New York’s Adirondacks and New Hampshire’s White Mountains do not have as many of the red sugar maples that are tapped for Vermont’s famed maple syrup. The lower river valleys of southern Quebec and most of Vermont have all been logged off, cleared, planted and cultivated almost continuously since the first settlers arrived from Europe. When old abandoned farms are left to recover, hardwood forests of beech, hickory, sweet gum, birch, and maple are the first trees to appear and cover burned or logged land. Climax evergreen forests of fir, pines, and hemlock take much longer to grow and once they were cut have never been re-established in the heavily populated northeastern United States. Nature photographers and those who enjoy sight-seeing through the New England country side in autumn are the beneficiaries.
Drive the back roads from Lyndonville, north of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to Burke Hollow, through a tunnel of red sugar maples covering Darling Hill Road. North of Stowe, Vermont, my favorite back roads lead over Hazen’s Notch, just east of Montgomery Center. In the Woodstock area, drive the ridge road, starting at the old cemetery north of town, all the way to the village of Pomfret. Here you’ll find some of Vermont’s best autumn color and some great old barns. The peak of the autumn color on the Upper Michigan Peninsula usually arrives at just about the same time as it does in Vermont. One of the places I always recommend is the magnificent view of the Porcupine Mountains State Park from the Lake of the Woods Overlook. This is a few miles east of the town of Ontonagon, Michigan, on Highway 64. If you can’t travel up through Michigan or Vermont this year, them you might consider a few days of driving through Shenandoah National Park. The autumn color usually starts each year around October 10th and begins to fade by October 25. About 80 miles west of Washington D.C., enter the park at mile 1 at the Northern Entrance near Front Royal, Virginia. Heading south, you’ll find 105 miles of great autumn color and many panoramic overlooks with views to the east and to the west. There are a few trails to higher overlooks, but you can see and photograph most of Shenandoah’s best autumn color from the edge of Skyline Drive. You may want to stay overnight at one of the three lodges in the park. Call 1-800-999-4714 to reserve a room at the Skyland Lodge, Big Meadows Lodge, or at the Lewis Mountain Lodge. If all their rooms have filled, try one of the six towns surrounding the park. Front Royal is located at the north end and Waynesboro, Virginia, is located at the southern end of Shenandoah National Park.
When you reach Rockfish Gap, at the southern end of the park, you can continue driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s 469 miles from Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. The autumn color in the Smokies usually reaches its peak by October 25th. I have traveled through the Smokies for the past four autumns, photographing the color. This is usually the busiest season at one of the most heavily-visited national parks. There are places where a photographer can find great color and avoid most of the bumper-to-bumper traffic found around the Cade’s Cove Drive and the Roaring Fork Drive. Drive east, along the Little River Road, beyond the Sugarland Visitor Center. Turn left on the road into the Elkmont Campground, then take the first left turn and drive the gravel road along the stream. There are some great hardwood groves and plenty of autumn color with very few visitors in this quiet section of the park.
The southeastern corner of the Smoky Mountain National Park offers a few roads into some very remote areas. Drive the Heintooga/Round Bottom Road off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s a long quiet drive with great high views from Balsam Mountain and some beautiful cascades along a stream that flows down the river valley and through the town of Cherokee. The most remote corner of the park is on the eastern side in the quiet Cataloochee area. When I travel from California, I fly into Knoxville, Tennessee, pick up a rental car, and make the 45-minute drive to the small village of Townsend where I spend a week on the northwest side of the park. This way, I can avoid driving through the crowds jamming the streets of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.
Westerners can usually find the best autumn color in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. There are major airports in Durango, Colorado and Grand Junction, Colorado. Check your favorite airline’s schedule and pick one of these two locations to start your San Juan photo exploration. Stay for at least half your trip in the town of Ouray. There is a good list of lodgings in the AAA Guide Book. Rent a 4x4 and drive the Ophir Pass Road to find some of the most beautiful aspen groves in Colorado. The aspen color is solid yellow. There are very few reds in this part of the country. Drive west of Ridgway, Colorado, on Highway 62 and stop at the classic panoramic viewpoint of Mount Sneffels, at 14,150 feet above some of the most beautiful autumn color on the Dallas Divide. Drive the Engineer Pass Road from the Million Dollar Highway to Lake City - one of the greatest 4x4 roads in the West. With a bit of luck, you may arrive in late September at the peak of the color around Lake San Cristobol. Spend the night in Lake City and drive back to Ouray over the Cinnamon Pass, through Silverton, Colorado. This is the northern end of the Durango/Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Photographers driving to Colorado from the western part of the country should drive the forty miles of aspen between Cedar City, Utah, and Cedar Breaks National Monument. The other scenic autumn color route that most visitors miss is between Boulder, Utah, and Torry, Utah, just west of Capitol Reef National Park. This road over the Aquarius Plateau climbs to almost 10,000 feet and can receive an early snowfall anytime in October. The color on these Utah mountains usually peaks by the first of October each year. Six times a year I publish Photograph America Newsletter with detailed information on the best places in America for nature photography. Below is a list of all forty-seven back issues I’ve published since 1989. These 12-16 page newsletters are revised and up-dated when new information is received. I frequently return to these locations with photo workshop groups and discover new trails and new vistas. 1 - Death Valley Subscribe now and start receiving all the information you’ll need to find the best nature photography in North America. Click here for more details about Photograph America Newsletter. |
|
Apogee Photo and Apogee Photo Magazine are
trademarks of Apogee Photo, Inc. Copyright © 1995-2007. Apogee Photo, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.
There’s going to be some
great autumn color around the United States in the next two months. I just called the
Vermont fall foliage telephone hot line at 1-800-828-3239 and was given an update of the
best places to find the best colors during the middle of September. This year looks like
there is going to be an exceptional autumn in New England. The recorded message gave a URL
for their web page and phone number for an automated fax line in case I wanted a complete
print out of the information available. Their hot line is updated on Mondays and
Thursdays.
