Blog

Pre-peak

If you’re not leaving that easy chair for a drive or a tour until the mountainsides are drenched in full-on, in-you-face color, fine. Stay there. You will be missing out on the best part of fall: the slow fade, pre-peak time of year when the wall of greenery is punctuated by startling splashes of red sourwood, and that red is highlighted by blonde eyelashes from summer’s blooms. These are days when magic is quieter along the base of the Blue Wall, visible only to all who appreciate subtleties. And every day the picture changes, and yellows in the trees grow brighter, and the reds more vibrant, and singular limbs of screaming fluorescent orange hang over rock and water as if admiring their own reflection. And every day for the next month or more, we will anticipate the peak of fall color even as the buildup to that peak offers almost more pleasure than we can endure. ~K