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Pat & Chuck Blackley.
Highland County, VA
Mountainside and countryside meet with stunning color in the Virginia’s Highland County.
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Cara Ellen Modisett
Marlinton, WV
A bike shop/coffee shop sign in Marlinton sums up the hip outdoorsiness of the town.
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Pat & Chuck Blackley.
Highland County, VA
Mountainside and countryside meet with stunning color in the Virginia’s Highland County.
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Kevin Adams
Pisgah National Forest
North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest combines great fall color with an abundance of waterfalls.
The air is crisp and blue, the mountains are on fire with color, and it’s one of the most beautiful times of the year to take the car, a picnic and a map (or not), and head for the hills. Here are some autumn drives for an afternoon, a day or a weekend.
North Carolina: A Photographer’s Favorites
Kevin Adams grew up vacationing in western North Carolina with his parents. Today, the photographer/author of books covering topics from waterfalls to wildflowers to backroads to regional history lives and works there – teaching, taking pictures and writing. Here’s his list of favorite fall drives, and why (more information can be found in Adams’ book “Backroads of North Carolina,” Voyageur Press, 2009):
The drive: Loop drive from Asheville by the Vance Birthplace, up the Blue Ridge Parkway at Ox Gap, side trip to Craggy Gardens, back down to Asheville.
This is a drive that’s “good for someone who’s staying in Asheville and wanted a morning drive or an afternoon drive.” Adams recommends stopping and taking a tour at Vance Birthplace – “it’s a very small place, and from a photographer’s standpoint, it’s very photogenic.” The Mountains-to-Sea Trail passes through at Ox Gap and parallels the parkway for a while. The Folk Art Center makes a nice stop on the way back into the city.
The drive (loop): Start out near I-40 and U.S. 276 west of Asheville; head west onto Cove Creek Road – go seven miles, then turn left onto paved road. Drive three miles, then turn right – Cataloochee Cove is straight ahead. Turn right and drive 12 miles to the community of Mount Sterling in the Great Smoky Mountains, turn left onto Big Creek Park Road, one mile to parking area. Take I-40 back to Asheville.
“A Jekyll and Hyde drive!” Adams jokes – the “Hyde” parts including the speed of the interstate and the sometimes-steep drop-offs on the back roads. Cataloochee’s history and scenic beauty are a highlight; he suggests taking a hike to the summit of Mt. Sterling, where there’s an old fire tower with an “absolutely terrific 360-degree view.”
The drive (“lollipop”): Blue Ridge Parkway south to N.C. 215 at Beech Gap; 215 north to U.S. 276; 276 south to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Wagon Road Gap; parkway back to Asheville.
“You pass through the area which is my favorite section of the parkway, the Graveyard Fields area.” Forest Road 816 (Black Balsam Road) will take you to the trailhead for Shining Rock Wilderness Area’s backcountry.
The drive (loop): I-40 to N.C. 209; 209 to Hot Springs, back to Asheville on U.S. 70.
“This is one of my favorite backroads drives,” says Adams. “N.C. 209 from Interstate 40 to Hot Springs is a North Carolina highway, but it is, as best I can tell and as far as I know, essentially unchanged from when it was first built… it’s a winding twisting road. It passes through a lot of pastoral land, very scenic… and if you take side roads, it gives you access to Max Patch Mountain.” Plus, “Hot Springs is a cool little town… it’s nice to park your car and walk around and explore.”
Roads to West Virginia
There are places I’ve been once and think to myself, I must get back again soon, and a few years pass by, and I haven’t. A fall drives story was a good reason to plan a couple overnights in the highlands of Virginia and West Virginia.
The drive (loop): U.S. 220 north out of Roanoke to Clifton Forge; 606 north out of town to connect again with U.S. 220 after crossing Warm Springs Mountain; 220 to Warm Springs; Va. 39 east to Lexington and Rockbridge County; U.S. 11 or the Blue Ridge Parkway south again to Roanoke.
The first part of this drive goes through countryside, wide fields with railroad tracks running by them, and always the mountains in the distance. It passes through the historic town of Fincastle, winds along and crosses the James River, climbs in elevation.
We detour at Clifton Forge, stopping in the Alleghany Highlands Arts & Crafts Center, the C&O Historical Society (there’s an Amtrak passenger station across the road), and an antique shop, for lunch at Old Forge Coffee. There, owner Jim Bay suggests a different route for us, on our way over Warm Springs Mountain – “it’s a nice road, if you don’t mind curves,” he says. “You might meet your rear end coming back.”
Va. 606 has curves indeed, as we pass by mountain farms until we reach 220 at a breathtaking wide expanse of farmland. Bath County is the beautifully pastoral home of the Garth Newel Music Center, The Homestead, the Jefferson Pools and (with Alleghany County) Douthat State Park.
We overnight at the Inn on Grist Mill Square, enjoying a delicious dinner, and in the morning (after a stop at the little shop at the Old Dairy Community Center in Homestead Preserve) decide to take Va. 39 east back to Lexington, stopping at the Dan Ingalls overlook, through the town of Goshen, then descending into the Maury River Gorge, where families are fishing, swimming, playing along its scenic waters.
Want to go a little farther? Lake Moomaw is 20 miles on, along Va. 39 west, and beyond that, West Virginia – Marlinton – and my second destination, which I reached by another road.
The drive (out and back): Va. 311 out of Roanoke, Va. into West Virginia; a short stretch on I-64 to U.S. 219 over Elk Mountain and into Slatyfork.
Years ago, I’d been to Elk River Inn and Restaurant in Slatyfork, W.Va. for dinner. I remembered it as noisy, cheerful, full of voices and music. So one Sunday I head out Va. 311, over Catawba Mountain, then over Potts Mountain, then Peters Mountain, then Elk Mountain, each one higher than the last.
It’s as warm as I remembered, and the dinner as amazing – pork tenderloin with peaches, macaroni and cheese with Gruyere and truffles, rhubarb and strawberry crisp with ice cream. My room: cozy, with a high bed, an extra quilt in the cabinet, two armchairs and Wifi. This is a lodge for fly fishers, hikers and mountain bikers.
In the morning, I take a detour to the National Radio Observatory at Green Bank and the half-hour drive down W.Va. 66 and 92 alone, through a long and beautiful valley, is worth it.
Back on 219, Marlinton is also worth a stop – it’s an outdoorsy little town, walkable, with a stretch of the Greenbrier River Trail. For a good cup of coffee – or a new bicycle – go by Dirtbean, which sells both.
Other outings: the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley and Cass railroads, several state parks, the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace and the Highland Scenic Highway. And if you come for the leaves, come at peak.
“It’s such a lush, healthy hardwood forest,” says Mary Willis, who co-owns the inn with husband Gil.
Virginia detour: Va. 785 from 311 in Catawba just past The Homeplace Restaurant, and on to Blacksburg.
More Great Drives
Alabama. Head to the mountaintop town of Mentone. I wrote about this place a few years ago, and it’s a little bit enchanted. It’s not far from the Georgia line, and it’s just off the Lookout Mountain Parkway.
Tennessee. You can’t go wrong with one of the western parts of the state’s scenic byways – the Ocoee and the Cherohala Skyway. Tennessee Tourism has two good sites for putting together a fall itinerary: fall.tnvacation.com/trails-byways and fall.tnvacation.com/fall-foliage
Georgia. Set Brasstown Valley Resort as an overnight and just about any route there will be beautiful. This is a rural and small-town area, beloved by motorcyclists. The resort is a good balance of rustic and elegant, with a spa attached. N.C. 441 to N.C. 64 will get you there (the resort is on Ga. 76).
Kentucky. The Little Shepherd Trail (from the John Fox, Jr. novel “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come”), starts below Whitesburg and winds 38 miles atop Pine Mountain, through Kingdom Come State Park to Harlan.
Maryland. Tom Riford, president and CEO of the Hagerstown-Washington County CVB, recommends: “West on U.S. 40 from Hancock to over Sideling Hill, and then to Woodmount Lodge. For more fun, go visit Pen Mar Park up near Cascade. The fall drive is great, and on a Sunday afternoon (until October 2) you can hear great music in the pavilion.
South Carolina. Follow the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway. A great resource is online at scenic11.com – take the detour to YMCA Camp Greenville’s mountainside chapel, Pretty Place (but call ahead, especially on weekends). A bird could fly out its open-air view and float high above the ridges.
For more from Cara's drives, visit RidgeLines blog: