October color and back roads in Virginia’s Highland County

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Leaving Augusta County at 7:30 Sunday morning, we headed to Highland County a short 20-30 minutes west to see how much autumn had advanced in the five days since we were last there. Rain and high winds over the weekend had blown leaves that were at peak on Tuesday off the trees so we were anxious to see how far east the color change could be found. We drove to the western border of Highland on the West Virginia line where color had been at peak on Tuesday and found some trees were bare and others were nearly so. As we checked out various back roads, the brightest leaf color seemed to be higher elevations closer to Monterey. We were not disappointed at the continuous display of trees showing off their vivid palate of autumn red, gold, burgandy, yellow, and orange, reminiscent of New England with sugar maples in all their fall glory.

Sheep sheep sheep. They are one of the mainstays in this part of western Virginia. For more photos taken last week of Highland County autumn colors, see Finding autumn in Highland County, Full color in western Highland County, and Evelyn’s pantry is hometown deli on Monterey’s main street.

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
October 5, 2014