Although much of the Great Smoky Park is well above 2,000 feet I knew that the approaches were lower and expected good color. There were some stretches of fall colors as I approached the park so I stopped at the visitor center to walk the trail to Cataract Falls hoping to capture some good photos of golden leaves and a waterfall. Although the walk was very pleasant neither goal worked out too well; the trees along the trail were either green or largely bare and the waterfall was just a trickle.![\"cararact-falls\"](\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Cararact-Falls.jpg\")
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Undeterred, I left the park to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) which terminates right there – but the road was unexpectedly closed. I therefore had to follow my GPS until I found another entrance some 20 miles further east. Now the southern terminus of the BRP where I had planned to get on is at low elevation but, at the point I was actually able to get on, it is rising to its highest elevation. Although there were a few good stretches of color I’m sure I missed the best displays. I did, however, stop at one overlook to remind myself of how great the views are. I was planning to stay in Charlottesville, Virginia tomorrow night as it has been two decades since I last visited that beautiful area. However, I just checked hotels and there is no room available for less than $180 (which must mean that the University of Virginia has a home football game on Saturday) so I will head home instead. It’s such a shame that I will not be able to visit Trump Winery \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thursday, Nov 3 Last night was my first back in the eastern time zone but, after watching the long finale to the World Series, I pretended I was still on central time and slept in. Once I did leave Knoxville I took the scenic route to Bristol, Virginia via Great Smoky Mountains National Park and … Continue reading In Search of Gold<\/span> ![\"blue-ridge\"](\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Blue-Ridge.jpg\")
\nThe best continuous section of color I found was on the tiny, twisting road that I used to descend from the BRP as I turned to head for Bristol. There was no way to stop for photos but the video captures the scene well and, together with the map, can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n