It's about time to go looking for fall color, y'all!

As much as I love pumpkin-flavored stuff, one of my favorite reasons why fall is my favorite season is because of the leaf colors. And few places have more vibrant autumn colors than the High Country.  We are almost at that time of year, people!!

The good folks at the Mast General Store are here to keep you up to date on fall foliage.

In this section you will find tips on taking better fall photographs, fun puzzles for kids, activities for young and old, a guide to fall colors, and an up-to-date leaf watch with periodic photos from the mountains of Western North Carolina and the Upstate of South Carolina.

Go check out the updates each week. Better yet, get your butt up to the mountains. And drop by and spend some money at the Mast General Stores while you're up there. You know your kids want candy, if nothing else!

The white stuff brought a lot of green over the holidays

The "arctic" weather that hit North Carolina over the 2017/18 holidays was a boon for High Country hotels, restaurants and ski areas.

“This one week will mean millions of dollars in economic impact,” Tracy Brown, director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority, told the Watauga Democrat. “It’s always good to see snow on slopes and the streets black. The stars aligned for us this year.”

Recent years have seen warmer weather this time of year impact tourism, particularly for skiing. (Here's to hoping it stays cold enough for our trip in March!)

“The last few winters have been tough, because we haven’t had the product to put out there, in our case, that’s winter sports, skiing, snowboarding, tubing, snowy hikes,” Brown said of the last warm December winters in recent years. “It’s critical that we have good weather and people can get here.”