Last month, I went down to Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina and stayed the night up on Attic Window Peak.   Here is a photo of me at sunrise.

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. To see the full Grandfather Mountain Gallery, click here.

 When I signed in at the Profile Trail parking lot, all of the campsites were empty, but when I got up to the Attic Window campsite, there was a pack on the wooden platform!  Turns out the guy who owned the pack was named Aaron, and he is a pastor in Deep Gap who decided to do the same thing as me!  He came up on the Daniel Boone Scout Trail(or the Cragway Trail, I can't remember) on the other side of the mountain and that is why we both thought the site was empty.  He was hamocking and I took the platform.  We talked gear and God and all that stuff!  

First we made our way over to MacRae Peak, not far from Attic Window.  Below you can see the Parkway wind around Grandfather Mountain.  Aaron kept pointing out which mountains were what and gave me a real good sense of the area.

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. From MacRae Peak, you can see the famous Mile High Swinging Bridge.

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. After dinner, we could see some really nice shadows on the mountains from an open spot near the campsite(literally a few feet from the tent platform)

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. I would be lying if I told you I wasn't a little disappointed in the color at the time of my visit.  Last year I came down in early October and the color was nearly at peak, this year that was still a lot of green. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. Once the sun started to go down, we headed up to Attic Window Peak to check out the sunset.  I love watching the already blue Blue Ridge Mountains transform to an even more bluer looking blue!  Blue.

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. I do love me some blue earth shadow! grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. We hung out for a bit for the moon to come out.  The bright moon makes for almost daylight like photos!

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. After a night of temps that were just about the coldest possible for me and my quilt, I was ready for that warm sun to rise up!

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. After a quick bite to eat, Aaron and I started making our way down the mountain.   When the Profile Trail met up with the Grandfather Trail, we parted ways, hopefully to hike together again.  

Down the mountain I went...  and while to Profile Trail has few mountain views, it is named after being able to see the 'profile' of the grandfather.

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak.

grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak. grandfather mountain fall colorImage of Grandfather Mountain, Profile Trail, Daniel Boone Trail, Attic Window Peak, and Calloway peak.

Thanks for looking.