Spent a couple of weeks chasing leaf colors in the Smokies last month. The first week was kind of a bust, not a lot of color, but by the second week the colors had started to pop. Other than one day of steady rain the weather was pretty good, but the crowds were bad on the non rainy days. People stopping in the road to take flash pictures out their windows, creeping along at 10 mph, etc. It's a beautiful but frustrating place to photograph. ;-)