Just a note to all of you that the Leaf Peepers Festival in Davis is coming up the weekend of the 23rd and we've ramped it up a little. On Saturday afternoon we (the Davis-Thomas Business Committee) will be selling beer from Mountain State Brewing Co. and food in the parking lot across from the fire department. There will also be a petting zoo for the little ones, along with craft shows, etc. that are typical for the festival.

There is a silent auction Saturday Night at the fire hall which includes, among many things, a chance to bid on the opportunity to have a guided climb to the top of one of the windmills on Backbone Mountain.

We are trying to make this festival more prominent and hope that you come visit. The leaves have really started to change in the last few days so there should be some nice color by then. We hope that you can make it out and support our little town's efforts to expand this festival into something more than just a local event.

Thanks for the update Jon. One question though - why is the leaf peepers festival nearly 3 weeks before peak in the Valley? The colors are always much more prominent around October 7-14.

Tom

Tom,
I've often wondered the same thing and concluded it must be because of the threat of snow when you get into mid-October. But maybe Jon can give us the real reasons!

We thought we'd try something different this year, and attend the Mountain State Forest Festival in Elkins; it runs Oct 1-8 and should correspond a little better with peak foliage.

Jon, didn't want to sound like I'm dissin' the Leaf Peepers Festival, it's a great effort by Davis/Thomas, and deserves our support. We usually go, and might go to both this year. The climb inside the windmills really has my attention!

Dave

I've been told that making the event later would conflict with other festivals like the one in Elkins and the one in Oakland. Furthermore, the peak up here is a little earlier than those areas and places such as Dolly Sods are usually right about at peak at that time.

This is my fourth year up here and other than last year's extremely late peak, I think that peak is normally in the first couple days of October, give or take a couple days. I was just looking at some photos of mine from September 26, 2004, and if it wasn't peak at that time, it was getting awfully close.