Camp Roosevelt to Mary’s Rock Tunnel

 Autumn Color Appears in the Mountains 

On Tuesday I set out to look at the early autumn colors. There was a light rain when I left Charlie at daycare, but the forecast just said it was cloudy. Sometimes colors show up well on a cloudy day so I headed for Shenandoah National Park. I have to cross the Massanutten Mountains to get there, and it only takes a few extra minutes to go by way of Fort Valley when I’m headed for the central section of the park. 

I stopped at Camp Roosevelt to eat the small lunch that I had packed. This was the site of the first CCC camp ninety years ago. 

The fall foliage was not showing up in my photos, probably because the rain had just stopped and light was subdued. I looked for adjustments on my iPhone’s camera app and found that there was one for cool versus warm colors. The middle frame (above) shows a picture at full warmth, but that was not realistic. I dialed it back down to capture what I was seeing.

Just east of Camp Roosevelt, I entered the burned area of the forest. It is recovering pretty well because the wildfires this summer took out the underbrush but left many upper branches of trees undamaged.

On the other side of the mountain, I drove through Page Valley, crossing the South Fork of the Shenandoah on Bixlers Ferry Road.

I went through Luray on Route 211 and headed up the Blue Ridge, entering Shenandoah National Park at Thornton Gap. For those who don’t know, the national parks are not the same as the national forests. They are administered by different agencies and have different missions, although there is some overlap in what they do.

The sun was peaking through the clouds by the time I reached Skyline Drive, the beautiful road through Shenandoah National Park. I took about 200 pictures that day, so I’m not going to post all of them. Many are repetitious anyway. In today’s post, I am sharing pictures from the first overlook I reached, the Mary’s Rock Tunnel Parking Area. 

The colors change first at the highest point of the park at Skyland. That’s where I went, but those pictures can wait until tomorrow.