The eastern United States has the most reliable autumn colour in the world, because its forests are dominated by maple, oak, birch and hickory, which turn different colours rather than uniformly yellow. The display moves south and downhill with the cold, at roughly a hundred miles a week.
New England
The classic, and the busiest. Northern Vermont, New Hampshire's White Mountains and western Maine peak from the last week of September into the first week of October. Southern New England follows two to three weeks later. Vermont's Route 100 and the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire are the two famous drives, and both are jammed at peak weekends.
The Appalachians
The mountains carry colour far south. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina, and because the elevation varies from 200 to 1,800 metres, the peak lasts nearly a month — high ground first in early October, valleys into November. Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the southern end is the last to turn.
Elsewhere
- The Upper Midwest — Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin peak in early October, with a fraction of New England's crowds.
- The Rockies — aspen turn a uniform gold rather than red; Colorado peaks in the last two weeks of September.
- The Hudson Valley and the Catskills — within two hours of New York City, peaking mid-October.
How to time it
State tourism offices publish weekly foliage maps and they are reasonably accurate. Colour depends on the summer: a warm wet summer followed by cool bright days and cold nights gives the strongest display, while drought or an early frost cuts it short. Peak in any one place lasts about ten days, and a strong wind or heavy rain can end it in a night.
Practical notes
Accommodation in Vermont and New Hampshire books out months ahead for the first two weekends of October, at double the usual rate. Travelling midweek solves most of this. Small roads are better than highways for both the view and the traffic, and the light is best in the two hours after sunrise, when the colour is lit from the side rather than from above.