It’s Week 2 of our fall color reports for the North Carolina mountains around the Inn on Mill Creek Bed & Breakfast. While Black Mountain, Asheville and our neck of the woods at 2,300 feet above sea level are starting to show signs of color, the peaks above 4,000 feet are decked out in velvety golds, oranges and reds as beech, birch, maple, sassafras, sweetgum, dogwood and more light up with color.
Welcome to the beginning of our fall color reports for 2013! Each Tuesday for the next six weeks, we’ll be sharing updates on fall foliage in the North Carolina mountains, namely, what trees are changing and where you can see fall color each week. Sometimes the fall color season stretches to the second week of November, and if it does this year, we’ll do a bonus Week 7.
| Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville |
One of the special features of Appalachian North Carolina is the
treasured tradition of handmade craftwork that carries on today through individual crafters as well as groups
such as the Southern Highland Craft Guild. The Craft Guild will be sponsoring the 33rd Annual Heritage Weekend, celebrating the traditional music, dance and crafts of the
area, on September 21-22, 2013.
In July of this year, a large crack formed on a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville, NC. This is a popular portion of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, especially for guests of the Inn on Mill Creek B&B since the closure was near the Parkway entrance closest to the Inn (just 20 minutes west of us).
| View from Mt. Mitchell, highest peak in the eastern U.S. |
You really can’t beat summertime in the mountains of Western
North Carolina. The average highs are in the low-80s at the hottest point of
summer. And that’s just our elevation. Drive 20 minutes to the Blue Ridge
Parkway and hop on for a scenic drive up to elevations of 5,000+ feet and
you’ll often experience high temperatures in the 70s, and sometimes even the
60s, in July and August.
| Our favorite rose bush at the Inn in bloom |
Spring is always beautiful in the North Carolina mountains, but this year, we’ve seen the mountains gradually wake up to Spring, which is different from the past two years when Spring sprung right out of the gate in mid-March and quickly headed into summer by May. Since springtime has been more normal this year, guests of the Inn on Mill Creek Bed & Breakfast have been thoroughly enjoying the weeks of vibrant green leaves on the trees and gradual blooms as springtime makes its way from our neck of the woods around Asheville and Black Mountain to higher elevations along the Blue Ridge Parkway nearby, just in time for the Parkway’s official opening this weekend.
| The (very green) Black Mountains of North Carolina in springtime |
We’ve updated our list of ten hikes around our neck of the woods that are great for enjoying springtime. Western North Carolina has elevations between 1,000 and 6,690 feet, so keep in mind that late March and early/mid-April may still be on the wintry side in the mountains at the higher elevations, while the flowers and flowering trees are blooming at middle elevations such as ours at 2,300 feet. By the end of April and first part of May, spring takes hold everywhere.
As we say in the mountains of Western North Carolina this time of year, what a difference a few days makes! Color is rapidly spreading throughout elevations from 5,000 feet down to 2,500 feet, and 2012 is shaping up to be quite a spectacular year for fall foliage!
The second week of October in our neck of the woods near Asheville and Black Mountain, North Carolina, is usually one of those weeks where the color will either slow down or speed up, a week when a few wind gusts may knock down the “early changers”, leaving those trees with bare branches while others are still mostly green, and a week when the air feels noticeably crisper but sunshine can make the days bright and warm in the afternoons.
