Yankee’s Foliage App Engages Leaf Peepers On Road

There is a turning point for the New England Fall Foliage blog every year when we flip the switch from prediction to observation.  This is the point when we can stop anticipating the changing of the leaves, and rely on our network of New England foliage spotters to focus in on the best places to find fall foliage.  With the first frost occurring the far northern zones this past week, and the calendar officially flipping to fall before the next report, we anticipate reports of more widespread color to begin to come in by the weekend. The weather has certainly been cooperative for the development of this color.  The brightest autumn foliage is brought about by warm, sunny days and cool clear nights, and we’ve had a great streak of them now across most of the region.  The forecast for the immediate future looks good too, with more frost for Friday before a slight warming trend, and little chance for precipitation until late in the weekend.  It’s looking like our August predictions of slightly early and likely vibrant could be a reality.

The first areas that will be turning brighter this week include the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, the high elevations in the Northern White Mountains and Great North Woods of New Hampshire, and the hills and mountains of Northern and Western Maine.  It is unlikely that any will see peak color before the next report, but widespread moderate color should overcome these regions this week! These areas that turn earliest in New England are also among the most remote in the region, and while some people are fortunate to live among the beautiful quiet countryside of the far north, most leaf peepers will have to do some traveling to be able to see them this early.  New England is a relatively small region with an incredible diversity in its climate and terrain though, and making a weekend trip to see these early colors is a fairly easy proposition.

How we travel has completely changed in the past decade with the pervasiveness of the GPS, internet and smart phones into our lives.  Access to data and information about fall foliage has never been easier to access, and discovering new routes and regions is as easy as typing a location into the GPS.  And if you see some amazing fall color along the way, sharing it with the world takes nothing more than a couple taps of a screen.

Smart phones have not only enabled you to instantly share photos, but they’ve also become very good picture-taking devices.  Sales of compact cameras have plummeted in recent years as cell phones have more and more become the do-everything device.  They are simple to use…you just tap on the screen where you want to focus in the image, and snap away. There are apps that allow you to edit the photos in the phone, apply filters to the images, and add geolocation information and captions before you share them.  Photography accessories for smart phones have become popular too, with special tripod mounts and clip on circular polarizing filters for those serious about capturing stunning foliage photos in all conditions and lighting.