Snow on the mountain!

On our way back to Florida, we decided to go through the park, on Newfound Gap Road. When we got about halfway up the mountain, it started snowing! It had been snowing a while, because there was snow piled up on the fencerails, trees, etc. We were quite excited and kept stopping to take pictures. The fall colors were about at their peak, and it was very interesting to see snow, on top of colorful leaves.

You can see how much snow had accumulated. I feel sorry for the backpackers caught out overnight. I am sure they didn't plan for snow in October!

When we got to the bottom of the mountain, on the North Carolina side (near Cherokee) we saw an elk! They are native to the area, but were decimated by the settlers, and have recently been reintroduced. There is supposed to be a herd of over 100 elk, but this guy was all by himself.