Better catch the color while you can, before the leaves bequeath a carpet beneath your feet and the trees turn seasonally skeletal.
The folks who run VermontVacation.com, the state’s official tourism site, suggest making fall foliage flight and hotel reservations as soon as possible – especially if you plan to visit on a weekend. Mid-week trips often offer not just the best availabilities, but the best rates as well.
Here’s how the foliage season typically progresses in the Green Mountain State. Different trees change colors at different times. The state’s signature red maples are among the first to show their fall colors. Look for them along the highway, and especially in wetter areas.
VermontVacation.com says the leaves begin to change color in the northern reaches of the state first, near the Canadian border and at the higher elevations. Then the crisp, crackly multi-color panorama unfolds southwards.
Just about now, in the middle of September, colors tend to be rampant in the north. Come October the typical pattern is for the reds, oranges and russets to speckle the southern slice of the state as well.
VermontVacation.com says, “Peak color is a bit of a myth.” That’s precisely because beauty intrinsically lies in the eyes of its beholders. Usually, Vermont’s most robust colors are to be had during the latter part of September up in the northern latitudes, and in mid-October down in the south of the state.
Then there’s that perfect afterglow, the time when the vibrancy of the season’s “peak” colors have faded. What you’re left with is a misty, watercolor rendition of what was – the perfect bittersweet way to mark full passage into autumn.
To track what’s happening with all those colors, VermontVacation.com sports a Fall Foliage Forecaster on the website.
(Image: Anthony Quintano)
