No this is not a Fall color pic. I was actually taking a picture of the surface that the leaves are lying on. In the early 1970s a major section of Newfound Gap Road was rerouted on the North Carolina side. The old roadbed now starts at the end of the large parking lot at Newfound Gap and rejoins the current road several miles below. I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind the reroute, but it must have been a massive project. It might have been because that section of the road was brutally steep. From the bottom part (pictured below) you can look up and see the Newfound Gap overlook and it would be a very steep ascent. The bottom section is now a "Quiet Walkway" where you can still see sections of the old roadbed, which appear to be made of crushed rock and cement. The walkway is open for a short way and then becomes a narrow overgrown rabbit trail. It's interesting to see the forest slowly over decades reclaim a roadway.You would think the NPS would have maintained the road as a trail but they probably have a good reason not to. There has to be many rock retaining walls, culverts and such still up there deep in the woods now, remnants of a bygone era not too long ago.
