Few places in the country are as transformed by fall than the Southeast. The hardwoods are a riot of color, of course, but more than that the annoyances of summer shrink to almost nothing. The bugs are gone, poison ivy isn’t ever present, and the humidity has fled for more southern climes. The mountains are never more beautiful, and spring mud is six months away. In short, the time for a spot like Asheville, North Carolina, home to the tallest mountains east of the Mississippi, Great Smokey Mountains National Park, the Green and Nantahala, Pisgah National Forest, and Blue Ridge Parkway…is now.

Click here to read Fall Peaks: The Best Autumn Escapes — Asheville.