Scenes from my favorite park in Autumn

The Umstead State Park is one of my favorite places in Raleigh. It has miles and miles of wooded forest, and as soon as you step on the trail you forget that you are in a state capital and feel like you’ve been transformed to the middle of nowhere. This past weekend was the autumn peak, when the leaves were golden and bright. I went for a hike with my camera to capture the park in all its glory.

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Sonnet 73, Shakespeare