After Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina, I struggled to find my way back outdoors.
The places I loved were either forever changed or inaccessible, and every trail seemed to carry reminders of what had been lost rather than the peace I once found there. I was grieving for friends whose communities were among the hardest hit, while also mourning the wedding my fiancé and I had spent two years planning, scheduled just weeks after the storm.
Hoping to get out of the rut we were in, a friend suggested a fall hiking trip to Virginia. I’d never been before, so he planned what he called our “most epic fall adventure,” beginning with Humpback Rocks on the afternoon we arrived. We reached the summit just as the sun slipped into golden hour, setting the autumn forest ablaze with warm light.
Perched in a narrow rock crevasse, watching the Blue Ridge Parkway and the valley below glow beneath the setting sun, I felt something I hadn’t experienced in weeks: relief. The crisp mountain air and golden light reminded me why I had fallen in love with photographing landscapes in the first place. This image will always represent the moment I finally came up for air—the first time, after a month of grief, that I felt like myself again.
