Each year around this time, sightseers enjoy taking in the natural beauty of the changing colors of fall foliage, in particular along North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway. However, this year will be different, thanks to Hurricane Helene.
Clemson University Professor of Ecology Donald Hagan is not just an admirer of the vibrant flashes of yellow, orange, and red across our region’s autumnal landscape, he’s an expert at making fall foliage predictions for the school and has done so for the past 12 years.
“I spend a lot of time in the forest, whether it's teaching or for my research. And so, I'm always paying attention to trees," Hagan said. "I'm fascinated with just the biology of trees. One of the neat things about fall color is that it's a little different every year. Sometimes you get a curveball.”
This year, the biggest curveball was lobbed by Hurricane Helene, which plowed through Western North Carolina on Sept. 26, causing the National Park Service (NPS) to shut down the most popular route to view the changing of the leaves: North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway.
“Asheville has traditionally been really one of the best places anywhere, dare I say in the world, to see fall color, because you have such dramatic elevation change within a relatively short drive of Asheville, and you could get up to the Blue Ridge Parkway from there on various routes," Hagan said. "From early October to early November, you would traditionally have about a month of good fall color somewhere near Asheville.”
Although the National Park Service has begun to reopen parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, the agency stated on its Facebook page that the entire stretch of the parkway that runs through North Carolina remains closed as crews continue emergency stabilization and damage assessments.
“The, last thing we need to do is get up into some of these heavily impacted areas, and try to look at fall leaves right now,” said Hagan.
The NPS notes that many areas remain unsafe due to weakened and missing portions of the roadway, standing dead and downed trees, unstable slopes, and crews and heavy equipment operating on the road. But Hagan says there are still plenty of alternative routes to see the glory of the changing seasons.
“One of my favorite places to go is the Lake Jocassee area, and there, you're looking at early November for peak fall color. Right along Highway 11 across the Upstate is also a great corridor to go," he said. "And the great thing about Highway 11 is that you're right there on the Blue Ridge Escarpment through much of it. So that dramatic transition, from the foothills here in the Piedmont, up to some higher elevations in the mountains, it's right there along Highway 11, right along Table Rock. So, that's a great place as you get into late October/early November to see that fall color spilling down to lower elevations.”
The winds of Hurricane Helene affected not only the routes travelers usually take to enjoy the sights of fall here in the Carolinas but also the volume of leaves on some of the area’s trees across the terrain.
“When you see fall color, what you're really looking at is a stress response in trees," said Hagan. "And when trees get, stressed, especially some of the ones that are more drought sensitive, one of the things that they'll do sometimes is turn color early and drop their leaves.
"The trees are going to be fine. But, in order to have good fall color in the fall, you need the trees to come into the fall with leaves. And we did have a few species this year that dropped their leaves a little early. But the good news is that most trees did make it into the fall with a full set of leaves."
Hurricane Helene’s impact will be felt in parts of the Carolinas for a long time. Hagan advises that South Carolinians hoping to see fall leaves should plan routes carefully and be aware of detours. He also notes that this year might be a good one to let the fall color come to you instead of traveling to surrounding states.
"At our lower elevations here in South Carolina, I still think we could see some good fall color as we get later into October and early November," Hagan said.
Update: on Oct. 23, the National Park Service announced it has opened a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway from milepost 285.5 at Bamboo Gap to milepost 305 near Beacon Heights in the Blowing Rock, N.C. area.
