Fall Colors Still on Display Across the High Country as October Comes to an End

By Nathan Ham

There is still plenty of colors left in the leaves in many areas of the High Country on Friday afternoon. 

Leaves began to change at lower elevations last weekend, adding to one of the most crowded weekends Boone has had all year long combined with the Homecoming football game at Appalachian State and traffic heading to the Woolly Worm Festival in Banner Elk and the Valle Country Fair in Valle Crucis. 

For travelers that wanted to avoid the area last weekend, this weekend is likely your final chance to see some of the leaf colors in the area, especially along the Blue Ridge Parkway where traffic was already building up on Friday. 

Several hotels in and around Boone reported having either no rooms left or just a few rooms left for the weekend with many leaf-lookers having already made their room reservations, providing another big boost to the local economy, not just for hotels but also restaurants and shops. 

Looking at the weather for this weekend, a storm front is slowly moving towards western North Carolina and will deliver a decent amount and rain and wind Saturday night and Sunday, according to the latest forecast from Ray’s Weather Center. With the rain and windy conditions, a lot of the leaves will start falling to the ground so Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon looks like your best bet to see some of the colorful leaves. 

Pictures from Thursday afternoon along the Blue Ridge Parkway from Moses Cone Manor to Grandfather Mountain: