For years, my autumn photo itinerary has included a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Smokies are a wonderful photographic location, but after several consecutive trips that felt as if I spent more time fighting traffic than making photographs, I decided to skip the Smokies in 2007. Instead, I drove to the New River Gorge area of West Virginia. I had not visited this national park unit previously, and as it turned out my trip was about a week too early for optimum autumn color in the gorge. Nearby, however, on the eastern side of the river as it makes its way northward, lies Babcock State Park. The park is small, but has one particularly photogenic scene--this restored grist mill located along Glade Creek, part of the greater New River drainage. The dry conditions of 2007 left minimal flow in the little creek, but a large pool a couple hundred yards downstream from the mill provided a nicely reflective foreground canvas, mirroring the mill building and the brilliantly hued foliage on the slope behind.