Along with football and hiking, another popular autumn sport is predicting where and when the best fall color will appear.
Park rangers, who often spend at least part of their day walking forest trails, are often the first to know. So for the second year, the N.C. Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development has enlisted the rangers’ help in reporting on fall color throughout the state. Those reports will appear in a special section of the state’s premier tourism Website.
Regular updates will keep visitors posted on how fall color is progressing through the different types of forests in North Carolina, from the brilliant red of mountain sourwood to the rust-colored cedar in eastern wetlands. Western state parks have already started reporting. As the season progresses rangers in regions of the state farther east will submit similar reports.
(For the record, New River State Park was first off the mark with a report this year – only a hint of color on the first day of fall Sept. 22.)
Another feature: as they’re able, rangers at coastal parks will file reports on fall fishing. The reports will come from observation of visitor catches. Sadly, the rangers aren’t allowed to fish while on duty.
North Carolina State Parks 