Late fall over the Blue Ridge

Leaving Charlottesville this morning I went on a day hike in the Shenandoah. I meandered beside a creek cut deep into a gorge adrift in a soft rain of oak and hickory leaves drifting down from the boughs above.

Sunbeams and rushing water. Russet, yellows and burnt oranges freckling the hills. The last leaves of autumn over the Blue Ridges...