Autumn on the Blue Ridge Parkway

I'm writing this post as a follow-up to my story on Holy Trinity Church of the Fresco.  We drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway after touring the church, and the leaf colors were really gorgeous that day.  Sometimes I save my pictures and material and wait weeks (or months) to write about them; but I wanted to go ahead and get this out because the leaves are being blown off the trees faster than I've ever seen before.  There have been years where some of our trees in the area still had pretty leaves as late as Thanksgiving.  I'm pretty sure that won't be the case this year.

Not only were the leaves spectacularly colorful, but the sky was colorful as well, and full of interesting cloud formations.  I love the different layers of sky colors in this picture.  There are violet, pale rose, white, pale blue, and then the smokey blue of the mountain ridges in the distance.

More layers here as the sun gets lower in the sky...

Our first stop was here at the Basin Cove Overlook.

You can see the blue ridges in the distance that gave these mountains their name. I tried to frame these views with the overhanging pine branch.

I did a few macro photos of these pretty wildflowers that were growing at the overlook where we stopped to admire the views.

These pictures give you an idea of how rich the colors were that day.  It makes me sad to think that those leaves have probably all been blown off the trees by now.  But it's even worse to think about what our friends in the mid-Atlantic are probably dealing with at the moment.

The image below is in my blog header.

This was the last overlook we stopped at.

The view in the valley reminds me of a patchwork quilt, with the little farms divided into patches of smooth green and colorful trees forming the borders of the quilt squares.  These are my favorite views; they look so peaceful and pastoral.

The picture below shows Stone Mountain State Park in the distance.  My husband and son hiked across the top of this with our son's scout troop about six years ago. 

My husband did this last picture by taking five pictures that overlapped and then stitched them together in Photoshop to make this panorama.  Unfortunately, the size got reduced when it was uploaded to Picasa.

I'm so glad you decided to stop by House at Forest Manor, and I hope you enjoyed seeing the beautiful colors of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  To my blogging friends in the north, I hope you're all safe, dry, and warm tonight.  Our thoughts are with you.

Denise