It’s early fall, and as promised, we are updating our favorite view of Gettysburg National Military Park’s Fall Foliage. This is a picture of Plum Run Valley (Valley of Death) from west of the 91st Pennsylvania Infantry Monument on Little Round Top. This view was taken from the east facing west at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
We still believe the change in color this autumn will be impressive. For those who cannot visit Gettysburg this month, we have decided to show photographs of this change in seasons. For the second straight week, we have taken photographs of this part of the battlefield from in front of the 91st Pennsylvania monument. We took photographs this morning when it was early enough to see, but before the sun came out and washed out most of the background. Remember, you can click on any of our images to enlarge them.
We’ve stitched together today’s photographs into a panorama. The top panorama is from today. The bottom image is our first Little Round Top Autumn Panorama on October 4, 2008.
For a medium-sized version of the panorama click here. For the larger JPEG version, click here. If you’d like to see the uncompressed TIFF file, you can download it here (30.7 MB).
We will “pan” this area from left to right, or south to north. This picture shows the castle-like monument to the 44th New York Infantry Regiment. In front of (north of) and to the right of the 44th New York is the monument to the 140th New York Infantry Regiment. The monument to the 16th Michigan Infantry is down the slope to the right (west), partially hidden by a small tree. Big Round Top is in the background. In the foreground is the stone wall constructed by United States soldiers during the battle. This view is from the north facing south at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
The monument to the 16th Michigan is to the left of this view, hidden behind a small green tree. In the background is the foot of Big Round Top. The Slaughter Pen is the cleared area with the small stone building containing restrooms. In the right background, the white barn at the Bushman Farm is visible in the cleared area on the slope of Warfield Ridge.. This view is from the northeast facing southwest at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
Humans aren’t the only ones to enjoy an early morning view from Little Round Top. This groundhog showed up on the rocks after we did our first pan. These rocks are in the middle foreground of the previous view. Any groundhog getting a view from Little Round Top must be nicknamed “Gouverneur Groundhog.” This view is from the northeast facing southwest at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
The stone building with the restrooms in the Slaughter Pen is on the left. The rocks at Devils Den are to the right of the restrooms and the parking area at Sickles Avenue. The white barn on the Bushman farm is below the treeline on Warfield Ridge. Houck’s Ridge, of which Devils Den occupies the southern end, is clearly visible in the sunlight. The light colored shaft for the monument to the 6th New Jersey is in Plum Run Valley (Valley of Death), and is to the far right of this photograph. It is west of Crawford Avenue above a dark green tree in the Valley of Death, and to the bottom right of a larger, lighter colored tree at the foot of Houck’s Ridge. View is from the northeast facing southwest at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
The monument to the 6th New Jersey is to the left center of this photograph. The monument to the U.S. Regulars on Ayres Avenue are now shown towards the right of this photograph. The lighter colored monuments to the Regulars are located east of the line of trees on Houck’s Ridge. View from the southeast facing northwest at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
The U.S. Regulars monuments on Ayres Avenue are to the left of this photograph. The corner of Rose’s Wheatfield is in the center of the photo. The Pickett’s Charge (Longstreet’s Assault) fields are in the right background. View from the southeast facing northwest at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
The corner of Rose’s Wheatfield is on the left of this photo. The fields of Pickett’s Charge (Longstreet’s Assault) are in the center background. The statue to Gouverneur K. Warren, standing on his rock, is on the right. View from the southeast facing northwest at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.
The Pickett’s Charge (Longstreet’s Assault) fields are in the left background. The statue of Gouverneur K. Warren, standing on his rock is in the center. Above Warren’s head are the trees on Cemetery Hill. To the left of Warren’s head is the light colored, Pennsylvania State Monument. Above the Pennsylvania monument, in the trees on Cemetery Hill, still sits the light-colored Cyclorama Building. The top of the monument to the 155th Pennsylvania Regiment is visible above the rocks to the right of the Warren Statue. View is from the south facing north at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2008.