This week has been Peak Fall, so I let myself take a couple of days off to go exploring and see the fall colors. The original plan was to take a notebook and do some brainstorming in lovely surroundings without the distractions I have at home. I did take a notebook with me, but it turns out that nature is more distracting than the Internet. I did a lot of thinking as I was walking around, and we’ll see how that comes out, but I didn’t write a word. I’ll just call these vacation days.

On Wednesday, I headed up to a town about half an hour from me. I drive through there often on my way to or from other places and always think about stopping there sometime because there’s a lovely park on the side of a river. They have porch swings on frames set up overlooking the river, with a walking path along the river. I picked up some lunch at a nearby Mennonite bakery and deli and went to sit by the river for lunch. But then I discovered that there’s another park farther up the river that you can’t see from the main road, and it was even better. It’s a lot less manicured, more natural, with a little walking path that makes a loop through the woods. There’s an old dam from when there was a mill pond at this site, which creates a waterfall. I will definitely have to go there again, and maybe I can even settle down to get work done there.

From there, I went to visit another park nearby that I’ve heard a lot about. They have a lot of events there, including jousting tournaments. The park is built around an interesting rock formation caused by pillars of harder material that remained when everything around them eroded. The official name is Natural Chimneys, but I think it looks more like a castle — the ruins of some ancient civilization. Maybe that’s why they do jousting there. There’s a trail that climbs up the hill behind the chimneys so you can look down on them, and there are other trails winding through the woods and hills and along the river in the park. I will definitely be going back there.

Thursday, I headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains. My first destination was a waterfall about 30 miles from town that people have been telling me about. I took a back road to get there and stopped by the mill to let the fog in that area burn off (and pick up some buckwheat pancake mix and some stone-ground grits). Then I found that while it’s close on the map, it takes rather longer to get to the waterfall because the map doesn’t show elevation. There was some really fun mountain driving (and I was glad I let the fog burn off), then a short hike to the lower level of the waterfall. I also climbed to the next level. The trail to the top of the falls is nearly two miles just about straight up with lots of stairs and I didn’t try to do it that day because my knees were a little sore from the previous day’s walking and I had choir rehearsal that night.

From the falls, I got on the Blue Ridge Parkway to look at the leaves. I timed it perfectly to be driving from the south because the sun was behind me, and it lit up the leaves. The whole thing was breathtaking. Unfortunately, all the scenic overlooks were perfectly situated so that the view was facing into the sun at that time, so I didn’t get great photos. I’d be driving along, wishing I could stop and take pictures, and then when I could stop, it was all at the wrong angle. I wonder what time of day would be better, if the overlooks are designed for sunrise and sunset instead of mid-day. I just have to go with the pictures in my head from what I saw. I imagine that it will be really crowded there this weekend. It was somewhat crowded yesterday, with no parking at some of the overlooks. This is a time of year when the hotels around here fill up and get expensive. I was downtown earlier in the week and there were even foreign tourists here. I feel lucky to live here and experience it.