We’re having a beautiful autumn this year. The trees are changing slowly, and brilliantly, and are hanging on to their leaves. Maybe we had more rain this summer than usual. Whatever the reason, I’m drinking it in. My husband and I hiked to a bald mountaintop yesterday, a place on the Appalachian Trail called the Rice Fields.

From the moment we stepped out of the car onto the gravel road at the trailhead, we knew we were in for a treat.

I gasped a lot on this hike. Every few steps, I stopped to photograph leaves. The forest was like being in an outdoor gem garden filled with rubies and citrines, topaz and emeralds.

At some point I realized I wasn’t going to be able to photograph every beautiful leaf, but it took me a while.