New England may get all the attention in autumn, but these lesser-known spots offer equally spectacular views. Photo / 123rf
Calling all leaf peepers: New England may be well known for its fall foliage, but there are alternative places to enjoy the rich, autumnal colours, writes Derek M. Norman
Every year, visitors seeking out fall colours throng to hotspots like the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Berkshires in Massachusetts.
But North America is vast and rich in forests, so why does New England get so much love?
READ MORE: Instagram-famous fall foliage town Vermont bans tourists
According to Professor William Keeton, a forest ecosystem scientist at the University of Vermont, the region’s diverse array of trees — including beech, birch, maple and oak — produces a wide variety of colours when the leaves begin to change. Add to this, Keeton said, a mix of elevations and slopes that face in different directions, producing climate variation, and you have a wide range of colours and stages of revealing.
Okay, sure, New England is beautiful, but stunning autumn colours don’t belong to any one region: picture the deep-orange dogwood trees of the Pacific Northwest, the golden shimmer of the aspens in Colorado and the rusty red of swamp chestnut oak in West Virginia. Here are seven places beyond New England where you can get an eyeful.
New River Gorge National Park
The New River Gorge National Park & Preserve in southern West Virginia offers more than 28,000ha of public lands that burst into shades of red, orange and yellow during its peak autumn foliage, between mid-October and early November.
Fayetteville, a small town near the park, offers plenty of dining and lodging and a downtown rich in Civil War history, where walking tours explore local historical sites. If you’re up for an adventure, try white-water rafting on the nearby Gauley River or gawk at colourful mountain ridges from about 60m in the air while zooming down a zip line.
Scenic roads wind about 133km around the park, offering views of forest, gorge and river. Along the way, catch a view of the 267m-high New River Gorge Bridge, one of the longest single-arch bridges in the Western Hemisphere.
And of course, there are plenty of trails that reward hikers with scenic views and cascades, like Glade Creek Falls.
Fayetteville
You’ll want a mountain bike to fully experience the fall splendour of this corner of the Ozarks. Fayetteville is a small city with plenty of cycling trails, art galleries, restaurants and the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, an 18ha site where you’ll find bats, butterflies and beehives.
As the air gets chilly and hues of burnt orange and splashes of yellow and red stretch across the hills and plateaus of the Ozarks from mid-October to early November, what could feel more peak fall than pumpkin patches, corn mazes and hay rides? If you’re in Fayetteville through November 3, you can find all these activities at Rivercrest Orchard’s fall festival.
Southeast of Fayetteville, the 30km Pig Trail Scenic Byway through the Ozark National Forest, popular with motorcycle riders, squiggles through a leafy canopy between scenic overlooks. And about 48km south of the city, hop on your mountain bike and explore rock formations, caverns and a 3ha lake in Devil’s Den State Park.
Bas-Saint-Laurent
The sweep of autumn colours in this picturesque region sandwiched between the northern tip of Maine and the St Lawrence River begins in Temiscouata — a lush area of forests, lakes and national parks — in mid-September and peaks through the end of October.
Around Temiscouata, you’ll find plenty of hiking trails and a scenic route that meanders through the Notre Dame Mountains, offering vistas of placid Lake Temiscouata.
In Parc National du Lac-Temiscouata, the wildlife rivals the colours. Catch a glimpse of some of the 150-plus species of birds that inhabit the area, including bald eagles, which you might see soaring over one of the lakes.
Wednesday to Sunday, the Kamouraska Forest Mushroom Festival, in the riverside town of Kamouraska, celebrates “mycotourism” with a wide selection of mushroom dishes. (September is Mushroom Month in the region.)
Have a sip of the local harvest as you savour the fall colours. At Vignoble Amouraska, a winery in Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, you can try fruit wines made with pear, raspberry or black currant, plus classic reds and whites.
McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass Scenic Byway
Oregon’s state tree, the Douglas fir, provides an evergreen backdrop for the leafy splashes of red, orange and yellow along the 130km McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass Scenic Byway, a loop in the Cascade mountains between the cities of Eugene and Bend. Colours peak about mid-October.
Cyclists can ride the McKenzie Pass Scenic Bikeway, a roughly 57km stretch along Highway 242 that traces a wagon route from the 1860s.
For a truly unexpected sight, visit the Dee Wright Observatory, on Highway 242 near the summit of McKenzie Pass, that offers 104sq km of panoramic views of moonlike black lava rock — Nasa conducted drills here in the 1960s to prepare astronauts for lunar travel. Also along Highway 242, Proxy Falls Trail will take you to a 69m mossy cascade that seems to disappear at its base as the water sinks through porous lava rock. (The highway over McKenzie Pass is typically closed from November to mid-June.)
New Hope
On the banks of the Delaware River about an hour’s drive north of Philadelphia, New Hope, Pennsylvania, is packed with antique shops, historic buildings and museums. The town, which hosts the Bucks County Playhouse, is a theatre hotspot and a popular LGBTQ+ destination.
In surrounding Bucks County, you can drive though red and gold-dappled groves to more than 50 covered bridges. If you’d rather take the train, the New Hope Railroad carries passengers in restored 1920s vintage passenger coaches on a roughly two-hour train ride through the autumn splendour, which peaks in mid-October. As the train traces the historical Reading Railroad’s New Hope Branch route to the town of Buckingham and back, a guide recounts the rich history of the area.
Kebler Pass
Robert Frost once wrote that nothing gold can stay. But gold can certainly return year after year — spectacularly so, in the case of Kebler Pass in Colorado.
The route, about a three-hour drive south of Aspen, is a gravel road that reaches more than 3048m above sea level at some points, connecting the towns of Crested Butte and Paonia as it passes through the Gunnison National Forest.
Beginning in mid-September, one of the largest aspen groves in the country becomes a blanket of bright yellow and deep orange. Driving across the pass, which winds through rugged peaks and aspen and evergreen forests, takes about two hours. (The road is typically closed from November to May).
If you’re up for a hike, the moderately difficult Three Lakes trail meanders through aspens and meadows and past alpine lakes as it nears timberline, offering views of the Ruby Range and jagged Marcellina Mountain. Camping is available at the nearby Lost Lake Campground.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park
Expect shades of deep crimson, bright orange and yellow to go with the roaring waters in the 20,000ha Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Upper Tahquamenon Falls, at 15m high, is the largest waterfall in Michigan and offers multiple viewing areas via a paved trail. Just several kilometres east, at the Lower Falls, visitors can follow a boardwalk through coniferous forest to viewing platforms. Keep an eye out for moose among those kaleidoscopic leaves, which change from mid-September to mid-October.
Finally, just north of the nearby town of Newberry, check out the Tahquamenon Logging Museum, which celebrates the area’s logging history dating back to the 1880s. All this touring might make you hungry for a hearty, lumberjack-worthy breakfast at a local diner.
Once you’ve had your fill, take a swig of warm coffee, pop your collar or tighten your scarf against the brisk breeze, and listen to the wind whisper through the red, gold and brown leaves.
Ah, just like fall in New England.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
Written by: Derek M. Norman
©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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