In my 30 falls in the Southeast, I’m pretty sure this is the best yet for fall color.
No surprise, considering that, save for a tropical storm, the conditions have been ideal for the past month for great color: cool nights, warm days, and lots and lots of sun.
The following piece first appeared in 2015, following author Kathryn Aalto’s appearance at Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books to promote her then-new book, “The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh.” Aalto reflected on the joy’s of walking-at-will in her new home of England, about how little is off-limits in a country that grants a legal right to roam. Her observations and wanderings seem especially pertinent in fall, a time when all we want to do is roam and take in this season of color.
The following is a version of a piece we run every year at this time, a time when our spirits are buoyed by day by cloudless skies and cooling temperatures, but bummed when those days of sun end earlier and earlier.
Most of us don’t expect the day — the daylight part, that is — to end so soon until the demise of Daylight Saving Time, which is Nov. 6 this year. So when we walk out the door on Oct. 6 expecting to get in a hike and discover a setting sun that will be completely set by 6:52, we’re taken aback. And a bit sad.
In the 30 years that I’ve been either telling people about places to explore, or actually taking them there, I’ve had a singular focus: the trails less traveled. My very first piece, written for the Travel section of The News & Observer in Raleigh in February 1992, was about Raven Rock State Park. Scouting trail there on a cold but brilliantly blue Sunday afternoon, I hiked to the park’s namesake, a bluff 150 feet above the Cape Fear River, and saw nary a soul. The quiet, the view … .
As soon as Labor Day passes, we’re eager for Fall hiking: for great color, cool temps, that special Fall feel.
Trouble is, it doesn’t happen immediately — in fact, Summer doesn’t officially pass the torch to Fall until Sept. 23. But there are a handful of places where you can get a feel for fall hiking early on. Today, we share some of our favorites. Most make the list because they’re along water, where Fall color tends to first become evident. Some make the list because they have plenty of edge forest, where color also tends to pop early. All but one is in the piedmont — and the one that isn’t is pretty darn close.
