fall colors – Wandering Dawgs

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #368 – Looking Back to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #106: Autumn

October 6, 2025Posted in PhotographyTagged Athens Georgia, autumn, Cades Cove, fall colors, leaf peeping, Lens-Artists, Looking Back, Photo Challenge39 Comments

John is Looking Back to challenge #106 – Autumn. We don’t get fall colors in coastal Georgia so if I want to see the autumn leaves we have to take a trip north of here.

Autumn is also college football season. Some of you know that Henry and I are huge Georgia Bulldogs college football fans. We spent many falls attending the Bulldogs home football games in Athens, Georgia. We have also made several fall trips to see Georgia play in away games. It was fun taking trips to combine football with searching for autumn colors.

On our way to Lexington, Kentucky for a football game we searched for fall colors along the way. We stopped in Sevierville, Tennessee where the colorful autumn leaves wowed us on a drive in Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the following gallery the first three photos are from that drive in Cades Cove. The final image shows colorful leaves in Lexington.

One year we camped on West Point Lake in Georgia on our way to Auburn, Alabama for a football game. We were treated to some beautiful fall colors around the lake.

Another year we traveled to Columbia, Missouri and Little Rock, Arkansas to attend football games. The autumn colors were glorious in Tennessee and around Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

For Thanksgiving one year we spent the weekend in Athens, Georgia to attend a home game against instate rival Georgia Tech. The trees on the University of Georgia campus and in downtown Athens were showing their peak colors.

Last week our guest host Joanne’s challenge was “Everyone should see this”. I enjoyed seeing all of photos of many incredible places from around the world.

I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to John’s post Lens-Artists #368 – Looking Back at #106 Autumn.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, October 11 at noon eastern time for Ann-Christine’s challenge.

For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #167 – Autumn Colors

October 1, 2021October 3, 2021Posted in PhotographyTagged autumn, Autumn Colors, fall colors, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, Seasons17 Comments

For this challenge our host Amy has asked us to share images of Autumn Colors. Where I live in Coastal Georgia, the calendar says autumn but the temperature is still warm. Even when the weather cools off, we don’t get the orange, red, and yellow colors we think of when we think of autumn. When we want to see the brilliant colors we travel to higher elevations in October or November.

The images at the top of the page and these next two images were taken on a lake in West Georgia one November.

The following images were taken one October as we took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

I hope you are enjoying your autumn where ever you are.

Many thanks to Amy for challenging us with Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #167: Autumn Colors

Lens-Artists #106: Autumn

July 24, 2020Posted in Nature, Photography, Sporting EventsTagged autumn, fall, fall colors, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge22 Comments

This July “Seasons” will be the theme for the entire month with a different season featured each week. This week the challenge is “Autumn”.

In coastal Georgia, cool fall weather is always a treat after the sweltering heat of summer. The sweetgrass (muhly grass) that grows here announces autumn with it’s brilliant pink colors.

20171025Backyarad-Muhly-grass-(2)autumn — In coastal Georgia, Muhly grass (sweetgrass) turns a pink in autumn

When we want to see red, orange, and yellow autumn leaves we travel away from the coast.

20131112amFog-(18) — Fall Colors in Georgia

20181122-Thanksgiving-in-Athens-(108)-Old-campus — Vibrant autumn colors on the UGA campus

Fall Colors at Lake of the Ozarks — Fall colors at Lake of the Ozarks

In our house, autumn means it’s college football season. We have spent many fall Saturday afternoons at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia cheering on the Dawgs.

20190921-UGA-23-ND-17-(54) — Sanford Stadium, home of the Georgia Bulldogs

Patti, thank you for this weeks Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Autumn

Blue Ridge Parkway, Creek Side Camping and Barbeque in North Carolina

September 28, 2015November 18, 2015Posted in North Carolina, Restaurants, Road Trip, RV Parks, RVingTagged autumn, Blue Ridge Parkway, Devil's Courthouse, fall colors, Fifth Wheel, Heywood Smokehouse, Highest Point on Blue Ridge Parkway, Looking Glass Rock, Scenic Drive, Waynesville NC13 Comments

After two days of elk watching in Cataloochee Valley we packed a lunch and set out from our campground in Waynesville for a 40 mile drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway in search of fall colors.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a 469 mile scenic parkway through the southern Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina. The northernmost point of the parkway is Mile 0 in Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro, Virginia. The southernmost point is Mile 469 near Cherokee, North Carolina. There are scenic overlooks, picnic areas, hiking trails, and campgrounds all along the way.

Although we have traversed several sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the past we had never been on the area in North Carolina north of the Highest Point at Mile 431. On our journey this time we traveled south from Mile 408 at Mount Pisgah to Maggie Valley at about Mile 455.

The first order of business was a picnic at the Mount Pisgah picnic area at the top of a short paved trail. After lunch under the trees we started our journey south, stopping at several of the scenic overlooks. It was too early in the year for the peak autumn colors but a few of the leaves were beginning to change.

Looking Glass Rock got it’s name because sunlight will reflect off the granite when there is water collected on it.

Looking Glass Rock Blue Ridge Parkway in NC

There was beautiful scenery every where we looked.

Beautiful day for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC

We found a few more fall colors.

A few fall colors on the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC

There are many folktales surrounding the Devil’s Courthouse. It was getting late and we decided to skip the trail to the top.

Devil's Courthouse Blue Ridge Parkway in NC — Devil’s Courthouse Blue Ridge Parkway in NC

The picture on the left was taken 8 years ago when we first stopped at the Highest Point of the Blue Ridge Parkway at Mile 431. The one on the right from this visit.

Highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Highest Point on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The photo below is the view from the Highest Point.

A few clouds rolled in as we continued south,

Our home base for exploring Cataloochee Valley and the Blue Ridge Parkway was Creekwood RV Park a few miles north of Waynesville and Maggie Valley. Our site backed up to a beautiful creek. It was a perfect place to relax after a day of wandering.

Beautiful Creek behind our campsite

Sitting by the creek was a great way to end each day

Duck in the creek behind our RV

Of course we had to try some North Carolina barbeque while were were there. The Heywood Smokehouse in Waynesville was recommended and the spareribs, chicken, and brisket were done to perfection. And it turns out the owners are originally from Georgia!

Beautiful fall weather, bugling elk, scenic drives, camping beside a creek, and delicious barbeque. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Fall Colors at Lake of the Ozarks State Park

October 18, 2014October 20, 2014Posted in Missouri, Road Trip, RVing, State ParksTagged autumn, fall colors, Lake of the Ozarks4 Comments

Lake of the Ozarks State Park is the largest state park in Missouri. The park has many miles of shoreline as well as many trails for hiking, biking or horseback riding. The rain followed us from Columbia and our hopes of hiking were rained out.

We chose not to pull our fifth wheel on the narrow, winding roads to one of the beautiful waterfront sites in the campground. Instead, we stayed in a big site with a view of the woods. We enjoyed watching four deer come out at dusk.

Time to relax

Henry found this fuzzy Catterpillar

Blondie likes the leaves

Rock cliffs line the shoreline at Lake of the Ozarks and although we were too early for the fall colors to be at their peak the trees were starting to display the beautiful orange and yellow of autumn.

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