Good gravy have things been busy this last week! For those of you who don’t already know, Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia had SNOW this past Monday AM. That’s right SNOW!
You can watch a video of that snowfall thanks to Ed Schneider of Snowshoe. Click over to www.SkiSoutheast.com/videos
The FIRST video in that loop will show you SNOW of another variety…manmade. It dipped to 26° this morning and Ed Galford’s team cranked up the snow guns for a test. As Ed stated, "This is ONLY a test." Actual snowmaking won’t crank up until November 1st at the Pocahontas County ski resort in West (by God) Virginia.
On to more important things (for right now) – Autumn Colors. We got ’em. If you can’t get up here and see them first hand, check out the same video link above and there’s a GREAT (actually awesome) video (again from Ed "I love my job" Schneider) that shows near peak color up that way around October 1-5th. Like MANY of the higher elevations this season, you’ll see a mixed bag of tricks from Ma Nature.
Elevations above 4000′ like that at Snowshoe, Beech Mountain, the top of Sugar Mountain etc…things are at or actually JUST PAST peak today. While that is so, SOME TREES have yet to turn. So this fall leaf season hasn’t been one that just seemed to "TIME" things where everything turned at once. That’s true all across the high elevations from Snowshoe, Canaan Valley in West Virginia down to the North Georgia Mountains.
Honestly things look a "little" more vibrant in terms of color up around West Virginia. I don’t know the science behind it, but there seems to be more reds and deep golds this year up that way. However even up there – as with most of the High Country of western North Carolina, things are more "rustic" yellows, oranges and browns this year. I’ve provided some photos.
I will tell you that it is STILL QUITE BEAUTIFUL and it deserves your visit. Oktoberfest is this weekend at several mountain communities. I’ll be at the version of "beer fest" at Sugar Mountain. Gunther, Kim and the Sugar Mountain Resort family do a great job with the German fare, bands, craft vendors, etc. The chairlift will be operating, taking you on a slow, scenic ride to the top. If you’re coming up for that, bring a jacket or thick sweater as it will be chilly, cold and alternating to warm in the direct sunlight at times.
I think PEAK COLOR for most of the elevations from 3000-3500 and up will be AT PEAK this weekend. That should make for an awesome trip to Banner Elk, Valle Crucis, Beech Mountain, Boone, Blowing Rock, etc. There’s tons of color up into Virginia at Massanutten Resort, Snowshoe Mountain, Canaan Valley and those mountains.
Here’s the prettiest image of the day!:
Cataloochee in Maggie is looking AWESOME!
