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The Colors of Autumn
Shenandoah National Park, Skyline Drive beckon this time of year: The attraction may be the reds, oranges and yellow, but they all start with green, green as in chlorophyll.
It’s the trees' time to shine and then shed, and people flock from all over the country to watch the show.
The changing of the leaves has been drawing people to Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park for a very long time, probably even before Shenandoah became a national park, maybe even before the first settlers came to these hills about 300 years ago and began farming.
Many go back each year because the show is never the same, but it is always beautiful.
Even the people who have spent their entire lives under the branches still find the season as mysterious as it is beautiful.
Randy, who did not want to reveal his last name, is a front-desk clerk at Aramark’s Skyland Lodge. He and his wife, Ellen, have lived in the Luray area all of their lives. He suggested that the best time this year might be between Oct. 15 and Oct. 20. He talked about sunlight and short days and cool nights and all the scientific reasons the leaves change when they do.
As he talked, it became clear that the Blue Ridge Mountains were a much-loved and integral part of his life.
“I’ve worked on the mountain for many years. ... I’ve run every trail in this park. I started hiking in high school and I’ve been running for 46 years, so I’m old,” Randy said, declining also, to give a specific age.
He talked about his years as a coach and his years of talking to the many visitors he meets as a desk clerk. He said he was known for telling stories about the wildlife to be found in the hills and hollers of the area.
For those who want color of a different kind, Randy said, they can always ask him why the black bears in the park are too fat.
Karen Beck-Herzog is the spokeswoman for Shenandoah National Park. Her comments about why and how the leaves change color echoed Randy’s.
“When you look at a green leaf, there’s always a yellow behind it,” Beck-Herzog explained. “The red is created by sugar, so the more sugars present in the leaf, the more they’re going to have red. As the days get shorter, the leaves begin to realize something is going on. So the trees pull the chlorophyll into the tree and what you’re left with is the yellow. But on a nice warm day, it’s working its sugars, and if you have a real crisp night, the veins start to close up, so the sugar, instead of being pulled into the tree, gets trapped in the leaf.”
Beck-Herzog predicted that this season would be “spectacular.”
“But the peak here is always impossible to predict,” she said. “Nature does it on its own.”
The views will vary according to the elevation, Beck-Herzog said. The trees at the top of the range will change at a slower rate than those at the bottom because, being higher, they get more sunlight.
Beck-Herzog highly recommended the National Forestry Service’s Web site which has an entire section explaining in detail the leaves process of changing color.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “... It’s very layman-friendly.”
Beck-Herzog also praised the keepers of the park. She indicated they do much more than point out areas of interest: They are another way in which the park is very green.
“The park service was established to preserve and protect the area and also for the future enjoyment of future generations,” Beck-Herzog said. “We do it in a way that it will always be preserved.”
The park’s Web site reveals that most of Shenandoah’s landscape is forested.
“In the process of photosynthesis, converting light, water, and minerals into foods, green plants give off water,” the text explains. “From a distance, this air-born water creates a faint haze giving the Blue Ridge its name.”
The Web site also explains that Shenandoah National Park is an outdoor laboratory that helps scientists study the effects of human activities on the environment.
The park had its beginnings in the early 20thcentury, when that era’s environmentalists began lobbying for national parks. However, things moved a bit slowly, and it was two decades before Shenandoah National Park was authorized, and another 10 years before it was established in December of 1935.
The spot chosen was near the DDE_LINK1Rapidan Rive DDE_LINK1r and the summer White House created by President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover. The construction of Skyline Drive began; the Civilian Conservation Corps was established and moved into the park area; and more than 450 families of mountain residents were relocated from the Blue Ridge.
Helen Morton is the director of sales and marketing for Shenandoah National Park Lodging for Aramark Parks and Destinations.
Morton explained that, because of the high demand at leaf-changing time, there are no special package deals.
In fact, Morton said, all the accommodations for all the weekends between now and the first week in November are already booked. The only openings left are weekdays.
“We have about six weeks worth of heavy visitation,” Morton said. The fall peak begins Sept 26 and runs through Nov. 8.
In a week or two, Morton explained, the view looking down from the higher elevations will be spectacular. A week or so after that, the higher elevations will join in the pageantry.
And there is always, Morton continued, wildlife.
“Wildlife is abundant,” Morton said. “There are lots of deer, and some guests said they saw a mama bear with five cubs. What a dynamite shot. They were just sitting side by side, looking around.”
The weekdays, Morton said, can compete with weekends in terms of what they have to offer.
“You have lots of traffic on the weekends, but it’s quiet during the week,” she said. “People come for day trips. It’s so close, but when you get here, it’s worlds apart. It’s a whole different atmosphere. It’s just peaceful.”
Contact the writer at ecarlton@timespapers.com
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