For Thanksgiving weekend in 2011, we took advantage of early autumn-like weather to hike a few of the trails relatively close to Skyland, where we stayed. With foliage off the deciduous trees, one gets a different view of rock formations, quirky shapes in tree trunks and various things that would be obscured by leaves during most of the typical tourist season.

In 2012 we returned for Thanksgiving weekend to find brisker temperatures but we still checked out a few short trails and added to this collection.