It's that time of year once again where all the leaves have fallen to the ground and we are left with bare trees. I love this time of year for that very reason. The tree silhouettes always look so cool against the sky and that's something you can't really see during the summer.
Well, this is the earliest start to ice season that I can recall. Usually I don't get pictures like this until partway through November. Lately, however, the conditions have already been ripe for creating scenes like this. High water levels in the Pigeon River combined with cold overnight temperatures makes for a lot of freezing spray and mist. Every piece of vegetation within reach of that spray and mist ends up looking like this.
What a crazy fall it's been. It kind of feels like the last half of September and first half of October were taken away and replaced with November. High winds, cold temperatures, snow and copious amounts of rain have replaced what is often one of the nicest times of the year. However, even with the dreary weather we've had a beautiful fall. The leaf colors were really nice this year. And right now all the rivers are running at levels comparable to spring runoff.
The Pigeon River, for example, has risen 4 feet in the last 5 days. The high water means there's a lot of mist and at night it's been dipping below freezing so that mist is creating ice on a lot of the vegetation surrounding High Falls. We often see this happening in November and December but I've never seen it happen this early before. It sure is pretty!
The variety of color in the leaves this year has been nothing short of amazing.
Looking down at an autumn forest from a fire tower provides a unique perspective. I love the variety of trees and mix of color in this photo. We had very strong winds last night which makes me wonder how many of these leaves are still clinging to the trees today.
I can't get over how good the colors are this year! It's been a few years since they've been this vibrant so it's good to see them that way again. Almost every dirt road you drive down right now has a lot of beauty to be experienced. It's a good time to go get lost in the woods (not literally lost, but you know what I mean)...
The fall colors are pretty darn spectacular this year and they've changed a lot in the past few days. Yesterday I posted a picture from this same location which was taken on September 26th. This one was taken on the 29th. Get out and enjoy the beauty while it lasts!
