

The Great Smoky Mountain Wheel at The Island in Pigeon Forge The twinkling lights of downtown Gatlinburg will illuminate the night sky as you gently drift up to the mountain top and back down again. If you want to enjoy a totally different experience at the Gatlinburg Sky Lift, try riding the route at night. However, instead of taking guests to Ober Gatlinburg, the Gatlinburg Sky Lift takes guests to one of the most scenic overlooks in Gatlinburg TN. Similar to the Gatlinburg Aerial Tramway, guests to the Gatlinburg Sky Lift will enjoy a smooth ride over the Smoky Mountain fall colors in the trees from the comfort of their seat. Guests arrive to the top of the space needle by riding in an all-glass elevator.Īfter you have finished enjoying the view, be sure to head back down to the ground to grab a bite to eat at the restaurant located at the base of the Gatlinburg Space Needle, or you can try your luck at one of the many exciting games found in Arcadia. The tallest structure in downtown Gatlinburg, guests to the Gatlinburg Space Needle will enjoy beautiful views of the Smoky Mountains fall colors from as high as 400 feet in the air. One of the most scenic routes to take to the popular Gatlinburg ski resort, guests to the tramways will enjoy a fully-panoramic view of the Smoky Mountains fall colors from the car. You and your family can sit back and relax and you gently cruise over the tree tops while riding on the Ober Gatlinburg Aerial Tramway. So far this season, we have already given you the best reasons to spend fall in the Smoky Mountains inside a Gatlinburg cabin, and we have given you a road map to the top three fall Smoky Mountain drives, but now we thought we would take a few moments and talk about all the other great places in the area where families and guests can see the Smoky Mountains fall colors. When areas experience below-normal or inadequate precipitation, trees and shrubs are stressed and can lose their leaves early, which can reduce the amount of overall color at the peak of the season.SeptemTop 7 Places to See the Smoky Mountains Fall Colors Areas that experience severe summer drought or even a late spring, often have a delayed onset of color transformation by as much as a few weeks. The best colors come about in areas where the soil has been sufficiently moist throughout the year. Soil moisture can help make fall colors pop.
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RELATED: How to Protect Your Property From Wildfires Drought On top of the tree loss, heavy smoke and other air pollutants can affect trees outside of a fire area too, coating their leaves and causing them to turn yellow or brown too early.Īs a natural response, some tree species in the eastern United States are starting to migrate north and west, as a way to avoid fire damage. As a result, the National Interagency Fire Center estimates we lost more than 7.1 million acres in 2021 alone. RELATED: 12 Things an Arborist Wishes You Knew Forest FiresĪccording to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, there has been an average of 70,000 wildfires per year in the country. Unfortunately, these fall foliage colors can be affected by several factors.

Carotene and xanthophyll turn leaves yellow and orange, where anthocyanins display the vivid red colors. Without chlorophyll, different pigments take over the leaves. That process involves a pigment in the tree leaves called chlorophyll, which is what makes leaves green.Īs autumn days grow shorter, temperatures cool down, and there’s less sunlight, chlorophyll production slows down then stops as the tree prepares to go dormant for the winter. In photosynthesis, plants convert light into chemical energy. RELATED: The Do’s and Don’ts of Cleaning Up Leaves The Science Behind Autumn Colors will help you make the most of your travels. Whether you’re planning a trip to take in the dynamic hues of the season, or looking to forage for some fall craft projects, understanding the factors that may have altered the arrival of autumn and consulting the latest fall foliage map of the U.S. Lots of people love the dramatic change in fall foliage, when the colors shift from green to bright yellow, burnt orange, and crimson.
