North Carolina Road Trip

In Mid-October, three of us went on a fall road trip in search of color.  Our plan was to explore the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, NC.  However, many of the leaves at the top of the Blue Ridge peaks had already turned brown.  Fortunately, we had other options for shooting.  We discovered a beautiful winery in Hendersonville, NC, which had only been open to the public for 4 weeks, but in operation for four years.  The wine tasting at Burnt Shirt Winery was exceptional - all the wines were delicious (if that's a word you use to describe wines)!  The wine sommelier and the vintner were friendly and open to telling us all about the wines and the vineyard and were more than happy to let us photograph the vineyard.  

  The next day we traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiked to Crabtree Falls - a 3-mile hike to a beautiful waterfall and one of the areas which did have beautiful fall foliage. 
A visit to Cataloochee Valley in the far northeast corner of the Smoky Mountains National Park was one of the most interesting and colorful days of our trip.  There we found vintage barns, homes, churches and a schoolhouse and elk which have been reintroduced to the valley.  The elk were in rut and the stags had their harems surrounding them!
More posts to follow about this trip!