Fall is Here!
October is here! In the Great Smoky Mountains this means the leafs are starting to change colors. This is the time of year where visitors come from all over to view and photograph the beauty the Smoky Mountains can bring. Why are fall colors so remarkable in the Great Smoky Mountains? The first reason is the parks diversity of trees. One hundred species of native trees live in the Great Smoky Mountains and the majority of these are deciduous. How do colors change? According to the National Park Service, as the summer comes to an end, the green pigments in leaves deteriorate, giving other colors a chance to shine. The pigment that makes carrots orange and leaves yellow, carotenoids, are exposed as the green fades. the reds and purples come from a pigment that is formed when sugars in leaves break down in bright autumn sunlight. The Great Smoky Mountains usually experience an autumn leaf season of seven weeks as the fall colors travel down the m...