West Virginia & Tennessee

Firie Foliage of Fall

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

December 30^th, 2020

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Leaving St Louis, we headed east to West Virginia to catch the fall colors. From there we headed south to Smokey Mountain National Park.

West Virginia

After a quick stop by the old Union Carbide Research Center where we spend a month before we were married, we headed into the heart of the Appalachian Mountains where we spend almost a month just relaxing and enjoying the season.

We started out in the town of Gauley Bridge where the New River and the Gauley River converge to form the Kanawha River which is central to the West Virginia coal industry. We were able to take a driving tour of the coal country.

New River Gorge

We enjoyed making a trip back to the New River Gorge and the Hwy 19 bridge that crosses the gorge. On Bridge Day (which was canceled this year due to the pandemic), base jumping with parachutes is allowed, drawing jumpers from all over the world. From the roadway to the river is 876 feet (267 M) so jumpers normally do not jump with a backup parachute, there just isn’t time to deploy it if something goes wrong!

This bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places and has a nice hiking trails and because part of the National Park Service in 1978.

We also enjoyed the Endless Wall Trail near the New River Gorge bridge, taking you along the rim of the New River where the highlight was Diamond Point Overlook. What a view!

Another highlight was Badcock State Park and the picturesque Glad Creek Grist Mill, one of the most famous West Virginia fall foliage postcards! We meet many fellow photographers during the magic hour at dawn and dusk. Seems everyone wants to capture this calendar quality setting for their photo portfolio.

Lake Summerville

We moved from our camping spot on the banks for the Kanawha River in Gauley Bridge to a Corps of Engineers park on the banks of Lake Summerville. It was an amazing campsite and to see the lake after it had been drawn down about 40 feet was quite different. The lake is drawn down on the weekends to support the white river rafting on the Gauley River, one of the top whitewater rafting and kayaking rivers in the east. It draws white water enthusiast from all over the east to its world-class whitewater. We saw many kayakers at the park we were staying at.

We got a chance to do some kayaking on Lake Summerville, which with the water drawn down gave us an interesting look at the lake. We made a little over 5 mile trip from near the Hwy 19 bridge back to the campsite.

We drove over to the Carnifex Ferry Battlefield SP and hiked down to the Gauley River for a view of some of the rafters. After seeing the class 4 water at this location, I would have to trust the rafting guide before I signed up for a trip!

Pigeon Forge & The Smokies

We headed south from our camp site in West Virginia and headed to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We were surprised but the number of people out and about in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. We did our best to stay ‘socially distanced’ and outside with a mask but the crush of people was still uncomfortable.

We meet our work mentor and long-time friend who just happened to be in the area for the fall colors. Amazing that there is still useful information on Social Media! We connected for lunch and planned to take a drive into Smokey Mountain National Park the following day.

We meet the following morning at the visitor’s center and took one vehicle into the park, heading for Cades Cove. The traffic was unbelieved, crawling at only a mile or two an hour. We decided to take a break and walked the Abrams Falls trail. It was a nice hike with a nice waterfall to photograph at the end.

The following day we meet again to take sunset pictures at Newfoundland gap and Clingmans Dome. We were able to see some AT hikers and pickup a few Earth Caches while there.