Autumn heat

It is dry this year. Terribly dry. I can think of all the jokes I have heard about how dry it is, and none of them are funny. All along the roadsides here in the Blue Ridge, the plants show signs of stress, even the Goldenrod.
Amazingly, most of the fall flowers are present: Goldenrod, Blue Aster and White Aster, Ironweed, and a few others. I have heard that colors are pretty north of here, near Burnsville on the Parkway. Even with the dry, the Parkway is pretty. Craggy Gardens shows how it got that name. If you go off into the picnic grounds, the road up will show you many flowers.
South on the Parkway, I have been to Black Balsam and Ivestor Gap, and it is very pretty. You can see extremely rare Closed Gentian here, and a few other fall specialties. Good luck - your luck will be better at high elevations of over 4000 feet.
Enjoy!