Leaf season from PDK: Highlands, Asheville and the Blue Ridge in under forty minutes

The Highlands road in October is beautiful and it is also slow. From Buckhead it is three and a half to four hours with the leaf traffic, more on a Saturday. From PDK in the airplane it is twenty-five minutes.

That is the whole argument for a turboprop in one sentence. Highlands-Cashiers airport has a runway of about 3,000 feet, which keeps most jets out and lets the Epic in. You land a short drive from both Cashiers and Highlands.

Which airport for which town

Highlands and Cashiers: Highlands-Cashiers (1A5), the closest field there is. Asheville, Biltmore and the Blue Ridge Parkway: Asheville Regional, about thirty-five minutes from PDK, twenty from downtown. Blue Ridge, Ellijay and the north Georgia wine country: Blairsville, twenty minutes in the air and half an hour by car to the cabins. Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain: Chattanooga, twenty-five minutes.

What people actually do

The most common version is a Friday afternoon departure, two nights, and a Sunday afternoon return in time for dinner at home. Couples, families with grandparents, groups of friends splitting a house. The dog comes. The airplane carries five, so a party of six or eight goes on two flights or on a larger airplane we arrange.

The second version is the day trip: out at nine, lunch in Highlands, a walk, back by four. It sounds extravagant until you compare it with eight hours in the car for the same lunch.

Weather

October in the mountains is mostly clear and cool, which is ideal flying weather. Morning fog in the valleys burns off by mid-morning, so we sometimes suggest a ten o'clock departure rather than eight. We watch it and tell you the day before if anything needs to move.

Leaf weekends fill early, particularly Columbus Day and the last two weekends of October. If you know your dates, tell us now and we will hold the airplane.