Wandering Peak-Color Autumn Forests Afternoon at AL’s DeSoto State Park!

I explored the Azalea Cascade, Orange, Blue, and Chalet Trails at AL’s DeSoto State Park on November 5 & 6, 2025. Perfect weather and peak fall colors elevate my pleasurable routine saunters to an extraordinary experience. It’s no wonder that I am addicted to Special Places and Everyday Nature! DeSoto State Park sits atop Sand Mountain at 1,600 feet above sea level in northeast Alabama, eight miles from Fort Payne, and not much further to the Georgia line. Come along with me on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.

As I began drafting this photo essay narrative (November 25, 2025), the ground in Fairbanks, Alaska, where we lived for four years, has carried a snowpack for six weeks, and the lows dip well below zero. I noticed on this morning’s news that portions of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are expecting 2-3 feet of lake effect by Thanksgiving. Lucky me — I am enjoying the prime outdoor season in North Alabama. Autumn, winter, and spring invite, welcome, and comfort me during these perfect days. Forget about frostbite, howling bitter winds, drifting snow, clouds of mosquitoes, insuferable chiggars, stifling heat, torrid humidity, and other natural tortures. This is heavenly!

Peak color, blue sky, bright sun, and a towering hardwood forest reached out, grabbed me, and dragged me along the Azalea Cascade Talmadge Butler Boardwalk. The deep alluvial soil and protected cove position spelled ample year-round moisture and a nutrient-rich, high-productivity site. The mixed hardwood forest stood greater than 100 feet tall.

I don’t see need for a lot of science-based narrative. Instead, I give you a guided tour along a series of trails during what may be the best day of the year, with perfect weather, a languid afternoon, a stress-free mind, and full autumn colors in a southern upland hardwood forest!

I recorded this 59-second video along the boardwalk.

Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum) is a common intermediate canopy species in our North Alabama upland forests. It refuses to be either positively phototropic (growing toward the sun) or negatively geotropic (growing vertically opposite gravity). Instead, it chooses its own course, like this one leaning in no particular direction.

Most main canopy species reach heavenward, seeking the bounty of full sun high above.

The boardwalk leads to azalea cascade, where a small stream enters a reflecting pool through the boulders.

Here is my 29-second video of the spectacular autumn leaves reflections.

A birch tree clings to the rock ledge where its seed germinated decades ago, sending its roots to exploit mineral soil both uphill and beneath the ledge. Every tree has a compelling story to tell.

Several hundred feet above the cascade the trail crosses the stream on a rustic footbridge.

I recorded a 58-second video at the quaint woodland footbridge.

I’ll offer a little forestry lesson at this 30-inch-diameter yellow poplar tree. The species reigns supreme across Alabama’s most productive forest sites…well-drained bottomlands and upland cove sites. The species, unlike sourwood, insists on growing straight and tall. It has a low relative stocking density, contrasting it to white oak and American Beech, among some others. Note how little crown space this yellowpoplar occupies. A beech or white oak of this diameter would have a crown of at least 50 percent greater area, i.e. a greater relative stand density.

Rhododendron is a classic broad-leaved evergreen, thriving in moist, sheltered forest micro sites. Sourwood (right) bursts in deep color, rivalling the flaming sugar maple magic of New England autumn.

Brilliant emerald moss brightens this sandstone ledge along the trail.

Lost Falls served as my destination, its upstream brook reflecting the late afternoon sun touching the ridge. The dry autumn streamflow furnishes little of the excitement I’ve witnessed during the maelstrom of early April’s wet season.

Here is my 40-second video of Lost Falls.

Beyond the falls, a sandstone glade ecotype dominates for a while. Exposed sandstone bedrock, very thin and acidic soils, and extremely variable moisture conditions prevail, ranging from standing surface water in the dormant season to xeric in summer. Thick reindeer lichen, and obligate glade plants make for challenging and entertaining botanizing.

I recorded this 58-second video of the glade.

From the Azalea Cascade to the sandstone ledge forest to the glades, my trek traversed at least three major ecotypes. This stretch of the glade is other worldly.

Leaving the glades behind, I descended toward the Azalea Cascade, through a stand control-burned three years ago to reduce understory vegetation. The forest floor is no longer densely populated with understory trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Bark-charred standing trees and burned woody debris evidence the burn.

Without offering explanation, I will simply observe that some hardwood trees have spiral grain, evident only when the stem is dead (de-barked by progressive decomposition), whether vertical or on the ground. I have not found definitive literature revelations on why trees spiral. When I find the answer, I will devote an entire  photo essay to the explanation.

Returning to the boardwalk cove, the forest-yellow, pale blue late afternoon sky, and camo-green sandstone ledges bid me farewell.

The evening gloaming is descending, offering a late autumn kiss on the cheek.

Even the deer emerged along the road, another signal that the autumn day has run full circle.

My Nature wanderings come in many shapes and sizes. Judy and I wander our suburban neighborhood nearly every day. I find wonder and delight even in the everyday Nature within walking distance of my home. I venture into regional State Parks, the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Land Trust Nature Preserves, and other natural areas withinin 90-minutes of home once a week. Two or three times annually I seek out of state locations to eplore, requiring travel, overnight stays, and greater expense. Now that I am 74 years old, I believe my international Nature-Based consulting assignments may have ended, the last one in 2019 to Kazakhstan. Regardless, I will continue to find beauty, magic, wonder, awe, passion, inspiration, and spiritual renewal in special places and everyday Nature!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
• Fall beauty is unbounded by life form. (Steve Jones)
• I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
• I will continue to find beauty, magic, wonder, awe, passion, inspiration, and spiritual renewal in special places and everyday Nature! (Steve Jones)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Steve’s Four Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future