Peak Foliage Awaits Visitors For the Holiday Weekend | Best Bets for Columbus Day Foliage

We honestly couldn’t have planned the Columbus Day foliage better!  Strong, bright fall color emerged quickly over much of northern New England during the past week, and peak conditions are now widespread and awaiting visitors during the long holiday weekend.  

We’ve been hopeful since our initial forecast in August that the moderate drought in northern New England might bring out a strong year for bright reds IF we had supportive conditions leading up to the colors. We also believed that things might progress quickly in the dry conditions, and with the Columbus Day holiday earlier in the month than usual, the timing and conditions are aligning perfectly. Some are calling the intensity the best in years. Others, just a good New England show. Either way, it’s beautiful right now!The region truly rolls out the red foliage carpet during Columbus weekend, with fairs, festivals and fun events along with our usual fall activities, and locals are joined by visitors from all over the world to take in the show. The weekend usually ranks among the top tourism weekends of the year for the northern states, challenging the big summer weekends for top billing. It’s certainly the most beautiful.  Where are leaves likely to be the best over the course of the next week?  

The areas that we’ve been highlighting for the past two weeks as having the best early color are definitely at peak as of this writing. In Vermont, these areas include the Northeast Kingdom, Groton State Forest, and the peaks around Stowe. In New Hampshire, these include the Great North Woods, Pemi and Zealand Valleys, and western Kancamagus Highway. In Maine, peak right now is across the mountains of western Maine, Rangeley, and the Carabasset Valley.  

The question in these areas of course is how long after peak will they hold on to their bright colors. Drought tends to compress the season, and the fear is we are one good windstorm away from stripping away the strongest colors. While it looks like New England will dodge the hurricane this weekend, a cold front over the latter half might make quick work of the peak colors in these earliest areas, and then it’s on to the next wave, just south and east of these zones.In many cases, these next areas to reach peak are just a few miles away from the brightest areas now. A change in elevation of a few hundred feet can result in strongly varied conditions, add in the changes found in notches and valleys and the act of exploration during leaf peeping becomes an important part of the adventure. Last weekend, moderate colors were seen across a very wide swath of northern New England, and cool mornings and bright warm days will continue the trend towards more rapid emergence.  

That would mean that the spine of the Green Mountains for the length of Vermont, the hills in western New Hampshire from Monadnock past Sunapee, as well as the eastern White Mountains could ALL be at or near peak this weekend. In Maine, take your pick of the western Lakes Region, Moosehead Region, Baxter State Park or the Crown of Maine of Aroostook County for a great show! Even the Northern Berkshires in Massachusetts will be exhibiting strong color. Many of these areas are slightly ahead of schedule, yielding new options for regular Columbus Day visitors! Many classic driving routes wind through these areas, bringing you through a succession of charming small towns and beautiful back roads with iconic New England landscapes. Waterfalls, mountain views, lakes, ponds, and rivers all provide quiet places to stop and gaze and appreciate. Route 100 in Vermont, Route 112 in New Hampshire, and the Golden Road in Maine are legendary, and for good reason. But with foliage so widespread this weekend, pick an area you want to explore, and choose a route on the map that looks like it might be the scenic route. It surely will be.

Checking in on the rest of New England, areas that tend to turn later, south and east of the zones listed above, have been more affected by severe drought conditions. The colors are coming in earlier than normal, but even so, it’s still early for leaf peeping across eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and even coastal New Hampshire and southern Maine.  So far, the color has emerged with a bit of inconsistency, generating a lot of curiosity and a bit of concern for the colors here. Lowlands are turning quickly, while the hillsides remain green. There are some amazingly bright oranges, but also some muted colors. We’ll have more color coming on here by next week, and a better indication of how the severe drought will play out. Given the way that the colors have come on up north though, we’re hopeful that once the widespread show hits here, bright color will overwhelm the stressed trees that have turned early.  

While out exploring this coming weekend, we hope that you download our foliage app and make reports and upload pictures from the road. Our crowdsourced foliage map provides invaluable information for visitors looking for the best colors! Additionally, on Twitter and Instagram, use the hashtags #NEFoliage and #MyNewEnglandFall to let others see your images! And be sure to check out our Fall Foliage Facebook page for images from our favorite New England places and photographers!  This is turning into a great year for foliage, but as you already know, New England rarely disappoints!  Are you making plans to enjoy the Columbus Day foliage? We’ll see you out there!