Saturday, October 17, 2020
This excursion was a bit of a departure for me. A few days before it began, my wife asked me what trips I have on my list that would be good for fall foliage, especially out east. As it happened, we had several days in a stretch clear from our normal grandchild caretaking, and it was the right time of year for a little leaf-peeping. Since I typically do my travelling solo, my wife hadn’t been on one of my little retirement excursions, and was eager to get away for a few days. We sat down and looked through my spreadsheet, and decided that a trip I titled “Cherokee to Brevard” might just fit the bill. We made some adjustments to the original route, which I derived from my primary reference guide: “The Most Scenic Drives in America.” That book refers to this trip as “Carolina Countryside,” and we expanded on the route because my wife wanted to include the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, and I wanted to pick up Mount Airy, as a personal homage to Andy Griffith.
The Carolina Countryside route as Readers Digest identified it circumscribed an oval shaped track beginning and ending in Cherokee, Tennessee. It extends counterclockwise through Bryson City, Nantahala, and Murphy North Carolina. At that point it turns back eastward, heading through Hayesville, Franklin, Cullasaja, Cashiers, Lake Toxaway, and Brevard. Then it starts Northwest again, closing the loop in Cherokee after traveling through Waynesville and Maggie Valley. Neither of us had seen either the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Smoky Mountains, and the stars aligned for us – so away we went.
We departed from St Louis around 7am on Saturday, October 17, 2020. We completed the trip on Saturday, October 24, 2020. We were extremely fortunate on this trip to hit the absolute peak of foliage color. I’ve been advised by friends for many years that I need to see the Blue Ridge Parkway in particular, in Autumn and they were certainly right about that. The colors frequently produced vistas that literally made us gasp. I know that a few of my friends who are themselves photographers – many of whom are better at it than yours truly – will look at these photos and say something like: “Well, I see he found the saturation slider in Photoshop.” But the fact is, on those rare occasions that I touched that particular adjustment, I actually desaturated the image. The colors were so vibrant that they were almost too much to take in, and in a few cases I actually toned them down.
Our first stop (aside from the normal refueling and comfort breaks) was Chattanooga, Tennessee, where we visited the Point Park on Lookout Mountain. Point Park is an absolutely beautiful park along the Tennessee border. It was the site of the 18th century “Last Battle of the Cherokees” during the Nickajack Expedition, as well as the November 24, 1863, “Battle of Lookout Mountain” during the American Civil War. Commemorating the events, artillery pieces and monuments tastefully placed in positions that seem somehow to blend into the scenic topography. Lots of walking trails and some gorgeous overlooks where the Tennessee River stretches out across the countryside far below.
Visitors can also see Signal Mountain and some of the Prentice Cooper State Forest. There is normally an admission charge for entering the park, but the rangers there leave as dusk approaches and admissions then move to the “honor system.” We didn’t see any “honorable” people among the dozens of visitors the evening we were there. We decided to spend the night in the Chattanooga area, having lost our daylight as we watched the sun setting at Point Park.