Despite the variability of temperature and rainfall due to climate change, scientists say the Asheville region’s fall foliage season remains the nation’s most vibrant and long-lasting.
“The reason is we have this tremendous range of elevation,” Howard S. Neufeld, Ph.D., known as the "fall color guy" and professor of biology at Appalachian State University said. “We also have a unique fall color here because we have more than 120 different tree species.”
2024 Fall Color Forecast
Neufeld predicts that fall color patterns will follow similar trajectories of previous years. Areas of higher elevation begin to change first, typically in September. He says “peak color” will likely be in mid-October, at elevations around 3,000 feet
Changing Seasons: What Climate Shifts Reveal
Karin Gleason, monitoring section chief at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Asheville, says temperatures across the country have increased half a degree every decade since 1965.
According to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), the world’s largest archive of climate and weather data, monitored by NOAA, this summer Asheville saw above-average temperatures in June, followed by heavy July rainfall totaling about 10 inches – more than double the average for that month. Neufeld says the heavy rain remedied the drier-than-average June, helping contribute to a more vivid fall display.
Climate experts are observing changes in the fall season, including a prolonged window of summer weather extending into September and October. These summer temperatures and rainfall are influential factors in the colors displayed during fall.
As the cooler nights of autumn set in, trees respond by reducing their production of green pigments, unveiling vibrant hues of orange, yellow and red.
Similarly, Neufeld says, fall colors can spur transformation in humans, too.
“When people come to see fall color, they realize this is what nature can do and how beautiful it is. Hopefully, it puts into their minds the idea that we need to preserve these forests, so that
their children can have the same experience they had.”
Asheville's Contribution to Climate Action
Asheville is a global hub for climate science. In addition to NOAA and NCEI, the city is also home to the U.S. Air Force’s 14th Weather Squadron, which provides climate services to defense and intelligence communities, the University of North Carolina-Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC), which helped develop the U.S. Climate Resilience recommendations for the Obama administration, and The Collider, a non-profit and innovation hub built to support startups aimed at climate resiliency.
“It’s funny we have a climate center in Asheville because it’s so beautiful. I feel like it’s one of the perfect climates – especially in the fall,” Gleason said. “The overall upward trend in temperatures is not encouraging, but Asheville’s location has certain advantages, in terms of a more moderate climate due to the elevation of the mountains compared to much of the Southern U.S.”
More Ways to Experience Fall in Asheville
- Views from Above | Get an eagle’s eye view of nature’s showiest season from the basket of a hot air balloon, with Asheville Balloon Company. Navitat Canopy Adventures’ ziplines offer spectacular views from one mountaintop to another for a thrilling aerial adventure through the treetops.
- Fluttering Through | Starting in Sept., thousands of monarch butterflies make their annual journey through the Blue Ridge Mountains, as they migrate to Mexico for winter. This guide lays out the best spots to encounter monarchs, often in synchrony with fall colors. A new River Arts District gallery, On The Wing, showcases more than 150 different species of butterflies in sustainable entomological art pieces. This August, the Asheville Butterfly Trail spreads its wings with 15 human-size butterflies scattered across town. The trail, led by Bee City Asheville, includes information about each of the native species represented, their pollination ecology, sustainability, and metamorphosis.
- Travel Softly | There are plenty of ways to give back to nature on a trip to Asheville, ensuring future generations can enjoy nature’s beauty and healing – from trail cleanups with WNC Photo Tours to “Hoppy Waters” waterway service projects that end with a beer social. More voluntourism ideas here.
Fall 2024 It List: Vacation Plans to Embrace the Season
New Ways to View Fall Color | The Healing Energy of the Blue Ridge Mountains Infuses Waterfall Trails and Glamping Spots
- Waterfall Trail Opens with 30-Story Observation Tower | Catawba Falls, with its series of 100-foot cascades only 25 miles from downtown Asheville, just reopened following extensive renovations. With 580 stairs and 2.3 miles of new trail, the Catawba Falls Ridge Trail is one of the tallest (and most accessible) waterfall hikes in the Asheville area. A new 60-foot observation tower, together with the stairs leading up to and above the tower, creates the tallest structure in Western North Carolina. The “Gateway to Pisgah National Forest” offers a new aerial vantage point from which to view the majesty of Blue Ridge Mountains fall foliage.
MORE NEW TRAILS:
- The Skyline Trail opened in May at Chimney Rock State Park. The 1.1-mile trail winds through a ridge top forest on the way to amazing views of Hickory Nut Gorge and the upper cascades of Hickory Nut Falls.
- The Butter Gap Trail Complex in Pisgah National Forest was unveiled in July, with miles of added trails for hikers and bikers, and an emphasis on sustainability.
MORE NEW WELLNESS:
- Hygge Elements is a fun-size mobile sauna and cold plunge studio perfect for groups, bachelor/ette parties and other events. Drip Sauna, featuring wood-fired, cedar barrel saunas and cold plunges in a new vista location, is another Nordic wellness option.
- Honey & the Hive, a beekeeping supply and honey shop in Weaverville, is decorated with a massive mural by painter Matt Wiley as part of his global “Good of the Hive” public art project.
- Luxury Airstream Glamping on the River | AutoCamp Asheville, now booking for September, will feature 65 iconic airstream campers retrofitted with luxury amenities. The riverside property also offers a clubhouse, bar, eatery and general store.
MORE NEW GLAMPING:
- Firelight Cabins at Shope Creek pairs a collection of Scandinavian-style, A-frame cabins with a community garden, chicken coop and espresso bar.
- Events to Connect and Inspire | Fall Festivals and Grand Openings Celebrate Black History, Latin Heritage and LGBTQ Pride
- Oldest Black Cultural Center in US Re-Opens | Founded in 1893, the YMI Cultural Center anchors The Block, the historically Black business corridor in downtown Asheville. The YMI has undergone significant renovations and will reopen this fall on Sept. 26 – coinciding with the Goombay Festival (Sept. 27-29) – as a mixed-use community center, retail space and Black-owned business incubator.
TRAVEL TIP:
- Visitors to The Block can check out Noir Collective, a curated boutique and art gallery featuring Black creators, and stay at The Foundry Hotel, a boutique luxury property that is an adaptive reuse of the factory that crafted bricks for the Biltmore Estate.
Latinx Creators and Innovators Enrich the Cultural Landscape | The Hispanic community is the fastest growing demographic in the Asheville area. During Hispanic Heritage Month this fall, visitors can immerse themselves in 20+ Latin American nationalities represented in the area’s food, beverage, and creative scenes. The whole family can celebrate at Hola Asheville (Oct. 13), an annual festival bursting with the music, flavors, pageantry and talent of Latin America.
NEW LATINO OPENINGS:
- El Patio de Guajiro is a bright and airy indoor/outdoor bar in the River Arts District. Together with its Cuban food truck, founder Chris Barroso hopes to share his heritage by replicating the recipes of his grandmother, while honoring his great-grandfather, who labored in the sugarcane plantations of Cuba (guajiro means farm worker in Spanish).
- Tortillas La Regia is the first Weaverville tortilleria to offer fresh corn and flour options – a reflection of owner Luz Salazar Maldonado and Martin Maldonado’s different regional Mexican upbringings (Luz, from the north, prefers flour, while Martin, from the south, likes corn).
- Haywood Famous is Asheville’s first late-night coffee shop and “sober lounge.” Featuring Cuban-style coffee and pastries and a flamingo-pink interior.
- Asheville Celebrates Pride in Fall | Blue Ridge Pride Festival takes place on Sep. 21, extending celebrations beyond those traditionally held in June. In addition to food trucks, live music, drag acts, and community celebrations, festival attendees can enjoy a variety of LGBTQ+ hotspots.
- Potential New Boyfriend – whose name is inspired by a Dolly Parton song – is a new dessert lounge concept expected this fall. In addition to sweet treats and aperitifs, the space will be an “intimate, decadent Hi-Fi listening bar” playing an eclectic variety of genres on an immersive Klipsch Heritage sound system.
- O.Henry’s, the oldest gay bar in North Carolina, was voted one of the best in America in 2022.
- Drink In the Culture| Bohemian Glam Rock, Heavy Metal and Jazz Age Bars Combine Asheville’s Music Scene with Culture of Craft Beverage
- Pipe Organ Taps and Groovy Sounds | Longtime craft beer aficionados know Burial Beer Co.’s gothic vibe and cryptic brand names, like The Magnificent Dissonance of Expressive Nonsequitur (Imperial Stout with coffee, strawberries, toasted macadamia nuts and vanilla bean). Fans of small-batch craft beverages can now visit a “portal of sound” at Eulogy, a bar and music hall adjacent to the Burial tap room in South Slope. Eulogy patrons can climb to the new VISUALS Rooftop Bar, which specializes in Burial’s line of natural wines and aperitifs. Lovers of craft brews and music should check out Burnpile (Oct. 12), a beer and music festival at Burial Beer’s Forestry Camp featuring 60+ breweries.
MORE NEW BARS TO WATCH AND LISTEN:
- VOWL is the new bar and event space by DSSOLVR Brewing. A “punk rock explosion” with a bohemian glam vibe, VOWL is a showcase for DSSOLVR’s natural wine and cider program.
- TRVE (pronounced “true”) is the newest brewery to enter the booming South Slope scene. Spooky season is the perfect time to enjoy the heavy metal-themed spot whose offerings include the “Cross the Styx” IPA and “Monster Blood” watermelon margarita.
- Red Ribbon Society, set in a former boiler room within The Flat Iron Hotel, the speakeasy bar’s name nods to Prohibition-era red ribbon makers. It offers signature cocktails, zero-proof sippers, carefully selected wines and local brews.
- Wine & Roses is a Jazz Age-inspired cocktail bar inside the parlor of the Zelda Dearest Hotel with a drinks menu by James Beard semifinalist Chef Jacob Sessoms.
One of the Largest Glass Studios in the South Opens its Doors | Asheville is home to hundreds of working artists and studios dedicated to traditional and modern craft. This fall, the North Carolina Glass Center, a nonprofit gallery and teaching studio, is expanding with a second state-of-the-art, 5,000 sq. ft. space in Black Mountain. Visitors will enjoy one of the largest displays of artisanal glass in the South and experience the fiery joy of glassblowing alongside master craftspeople. The mission of NC Glass Center is to offer working glass artists a low-cost space to jumpstart their careers – thus nurturing the next generation of contemporary craft.
OFF-THE-BEATEN-PATH TRAVEL TIP:
- Black Mountain, voted "America's Prettiest Small Town" by TripAdvisor, serves as the front porch to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Just 25 minutes from Asheville, Black Mountain boasts a walkable, picturesque downtown packed with small businesses and cosmopolitan restaurants. The town was once home to Black Mountain College, one of the most innovative experimental art colleges in the U.S that taught Modernist masters like John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg. Today, Black Mountain remains an artist mecca, dense with galleries and studios showcasing some of the region’s best Appalachian arts and crafts.
Ever-Evolving Foodtopia | New Restaurants Extend Asheville’s Status as a World Culinary Capital
- Multiple Award-Winning Chai Pani Relocates | When the acclaimed Indian street food concept from Chef Meherwan Irani opened its doors in 2009, it was so immediately popular that the kitchen sold out of food by midday. Twelve years later, Chai Pani made the New York Times list of America’s Favorite Restaurants and was named Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation in 2022. Chai Pani has a new home in a 10,000 sq. ft. former skating rink in the fast-growing South Slope neighborhood.
THE JAMES BEARD SEAL OF APPROVAL:
- It’s hard to dine in Asheville without hitting a restaurant that’s been honored by the James Beard Foundation. In 2024, farm-to-table pioneer The Market Place was nominated for Outstanding Restaurant, and Chef Jason Sellers of the gourmet vegan eatery Plant was nominated for Best Chef: Southeast.
- Vegan Comfort Food with a Heart | When the youngest son of Chef Parker Schultz and his partner Kiimia (nicknamed Keems) was diagnosed with leukemia at age 2, the pair was reminded that life is precious and were inspired to follow their dream of opening a casual, plant-based eatery with values at its core. Today, with the whole family happy and healthy, Parker and Keems are taking the next step – a brick-and-mortar version of The Smokin’ Onion, whose food truck has already earned a passionate following among vegans and omnivores alike. With dishes like the Yippee Kai-Yay Burger and “Chick’n” & Waffles, The Smokin’ Onion lives up to its motto: “damn good food that happens to be vegan.”
MORE NEW RESTAURANTS:
- Gourmand, previously a small downtown wine bar, is getting new life in a larger dedicated space in the River Arts District. In addition to their curated selection of unique wines, spirits and other French goods, Gourmand will now feature a classic Parisian rotisserie with locally sourced chicken.
- Butterpunk, opening in the River Arts District this fall, features a signature style of crispy, buttery pastry that’s a cross between a croissant and a traditional Southern biscuit. It’s the work of Beth Kellerhals, a local baker and chef who is known for her frequent pop-ups, including the Ladies Who Brunch.
- Mission Pizza, located inside Terra Nova Beer Co., is the sister concept of the acclaimed Mission Pizza Napoletana (both are owned by James Beard-nominated Chef Peyton Smith).
- Romeo’s Vegan Burgers in North Asheville satisfies the classic American appetite for burgers, fries and shakes – but the entire menu is plant-based. It is also one of the few Black-owned vegan restaurants in North Carolina.
PHOTO OPP WITH FLAVOR:
- Soprana Rooftop Cucina, an expansive rooftop bar atop the new Embassy Suites specializing in fresh, brick-oven pizza, provides some of the most unobstructed views of mountain fall color in downtown Asheville.
- 2024 Fall Festival Roundup | Save these September, October and November Dates:
- New Festival Celebrates Unsung Heroes who Built Asheville | Through performances, workshops, exhibits and tours, the Boomtown Arts & Heritage FestAVL (Sep. 6-7) aims to retell and highlight the lesser-known stories of artists, architects and innovators who laid the foundation for Asheville as we know it today. In the 1920s, Asheville became a “boomtown,” as it experienced a period of rapid economic growth, leading to the construction of architectural marvels like the neo-gothic Jackson Building and the Basilica of St. Lawrence, which boasts the largest freestanding elliptical dome in North America.
BLACK EXCELLENCE:
- Visitors can walk the self-guided James Vester Miller Trail and learn the story of a formerly enslaved man who became one of the great Gilded Age brick masons. The Asheville Black Cultural Heritage Trail (which debuted in 2024) also highlights landmarks and untold stories of Asheville’s Black community.
MORE FALL FESTIVALS:
- Asheville FM Record Fair (Sept. 7) – Explore a 10,000 square foot treasure trove of records, 45s, CDs, and collectibles while grooving to live DJs and local musicians.
- Sow & Grow Fest (Sept. 14) – Celebrate the rich bounty of the Asheville area food and farming community with the Organic Growers School.
- Eliada Fall Festival and Corn Maze (Sept. 20 – Oct. 27, Fri-Sun) – The whole family will enjoy a giant corn maze, lawn games, hayrides and a pumpkin patch.
- Punch Bucket Literary Festival (Sept. 20-21) – Writers and literary enthusiasts from all over the country gather to enjoy readings, panel discussions and a book fair.
- ASAP’s Farm Tours (Sept. 21-22) – A family-friendly tour of Asheville-area working farms, vineyards and orchards from the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project.
- Asheville Quilt Show (Sept. 26-28) – The Ruby Jubilee (40th anniversary) features over 300 quilts on display, demonstrations by expert quilters and a sewing station for kids.
- Asheville Greek Festival (Sept. 27-28) – For over thirty years, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church has invited the Asheville community to share the tastes, sights and sounds of Greece at this annual festival.
- Appalachia Day (Oct. 12) – Celebrate the essence of Appalachia at Hickory Nut Gap Farm in Fairview. Kids will love the hayrides and pony rides while adults can savor local bites from food trucks and cold beers from Wicked Weed and Highland.
- The Lovely Asheville Fall Festival (Oct. 12-13) – Celebrating the beauty, diversity and preservation of nature and humanity.
- LEAF Global Arts Festival (Oct. 17-20) – Performers this year at the beloved, long-running Black Mountain festival include Bela Fleck, Making Movies, Las Cafeteras, Trapp Jazz and Abigail Washburn.
- Asheville Tattoo Arts Festival (Nov. 15-17) – Featuring hundreds of tattoo artists from across the world, attendees can enter tattoo competitions, shop vendors from clothing and jewelry to oddities and more, and enjoy live entertainment, including a sideshow act and human suspension.
