Your guide to watching North Carolina's leaves change
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Peak leaf-peeping season is around the corner, and we're fortunate enough to be within driving distance from one of the most beautiful places to watch the leaves change.
Mark your calendars: October 23 is slated to be the best weekend for fall colors across much of North Carolina, according to a foliage forecast from SmokyMountains.com.
- Fall colors will likely really start to pop beginning in the first week of October.
Zoom in: The Smoky Mountains will peak around October 16 and will be past peak by Oct. 23.
- The Triangle will peak a little earlier, around Oct. 23.
- And the whole state will be past its peak by around Nov. 6.
Be smart: The Blue Ridge Mountains is one of the best places to soak up those fall colors, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every year.
- At a minimum, fall color tourism adds $1 billion to the state's economy, Appalachian State University researchers say.
- If you can't make it all the way out to the mountains this year, Triangle On The Cheap has some ideas for scenic fall drives all across the state.
Fun fact: The green color in leaves comes from chlorophyll, the pigment that helps plants turn sunlight into energy via photosynthesis, Axios' Anna Spiegel writes.
- As nights get longer and there's less sunlight in the fall, leaves stop making chlorophyll.
- The green color fades and the yellows, oranges, reds, or purples become visible. Not borophyll!
Go deeper: 5 must-visit mountain towns within four hours of Raleigh