Skyline drive in Shenandoah Park

Dave at The Home Garden is asking for Garden bloggers to show their fall colors through a Garden Bloggers Fall Color Project . Here in Georgia, there is not much color as of yet but I was recently in Virginia where we spotted some beautiful Fall Colors that I would like to share with you...

The Saint and I recently drove through a portion of the Blue Ridge mountains. We drove along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. We were expecting tons of Fall color with our timing.

The drive up the mountain is full of curves, enough so to make one a bit dizzy at times!

This area has been in a recently drought with mild temps so the colors were not as spectacular as we had expected. But still beautiful with the different colors side by side.

We were wondering if we would spot any bears while on our journey to the top of the Earth! Tina recently saw bears in a tree and stopped to snap this picture of them. They are so cute frolicking in the tree in such a playful manner. If only we could be so lucky to spot bears in a tree! Let's cruise on up the mountain as you never know what we might spot...

Here a lone evergreen stood tall with the fall colors in the background.

Yellow was the dominate color of the mountains with rust and some green mixed within. Even though the colors were not as vibrant with colors of reds and orange that I was dying to see, it was still a beautiful sight to our eyes. Our 3 year GA drought has not left us with much color so this was beautiful for us.

We found the beauty in this lone tree of years past.
We did spot a vibrant red here and there in the tops of trees leading us to believe that the peek season was still a few days away.
It was so pretty and breathtaking to see this beautiful country from high above.

Even though the yellows don't impress me much, this tree stood out and glowed with the sun shining on its beautiful leaves.

I spotted beauty along the hillside as we drove along the slow winding road. The stone on the hillside was just awesome with the colored leaves surrounding it.

I know these are not trees filled with colors but I bet at one point, they were magnificent trees filled with color. I still see their beauty.

Now just what in the world could this black patch be in the middle of that beautiful golden leafed tree?

Let's click the video to see what it could be...

Let's click this second video to make sure we see what we think we see. Yep, it was our lucky day! A black bear in a tree along side of the road eating leaves! This bear was enjoying its lunch and not paying any attention to the amazed humans below!

Sorry about the talking on the video but no way possible to avoid that noisy chit chat from the 50 or so new friends surrounding me! I am sure the camera book tells me how to turn off the mic but I must have missed that chapter. I was holding one hand up shading the sun from my eyes while operating the camera with the other hand. I was lucky to capture the video as the still shots did not come out clear at all.

If you listen to the sound, after I speak on the second video, you can hear a man make the perfect statement. And it was just about too much for the heart to take. It was awesome....

Moving on down the mountain to the Big Meadows area, we made our final stop before gliding back down the mountain. Can anyone identify this beautiful red leaf plant?

The Meadow was full of it and it was really pretty with the sun beaming down on it.

We also spotted these pods that were opening up and scattering seeds all over the Meadow! It looked like it was snowing but it was way too warm on this day for snow.

My Mother in law tells me these are Milkweed pods. I did not know they had pods and I should pay closer attention...

But in my defense, I thought this was Milkweed. A correction by my Mother in law as to this being Queen Annes lace. Now just why is it blooming this time of year? Hummmm....

Wildflowers in colors of purple were a pretty sight along the roadside as well as the pretty trees.

Wild Asters maybe? As you know, I do not know my wildflowers but I think these to be asters of some type.

We headed to TN from the VA leg of our trip and saw some pretty colors there also.

A bit more reds and oranges but since we did not stop for Kodak moments during this part of our journey, you must rely on others for a TN view. Not a bad shot for cruising at 75mph don't ya think?

Now our journey through SKYLINE DRIVE AND THE SHENANDOAH PARK is over and I am once again back, In the Garden...