Best places for fall foliage in the U.S.

New England

Best time: late September to late October. Smugglers' Notch typically peaks first, around Sep 30, and Newport last, around Oct 29.

New England’s hardwood forests, thick with sugar and red maples, produce some of the most brilliant reds and oranges anywhere. The color starts in the northern mountains and high notches and moves south and toward the coast through October, so a trip can follow it for weeks.

State guides: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island.

Adirondacks and Catskills

Best time: early October to mid-October. Lake Placid typically peaks first, around Oct 2, and Woodstock last, around Oct 18.

New York’s two big mountain regions run on different schedules. The Adirondacks, in the state’s far north, are among the earliest places in the East to peak. The Catskills, farther south and lower, typically follow about ten days later.

For the Finger Lakes, Letchworth State Park, Cooperstown, and the Hudson Valley, see the full New York guide.

State guides: New York.

Appalachians and Blue Ridge

Best time: early October to late October. Mount Mitchell typically peaks first, around Oct 7, and Pigeon Forge last, around Oct 31.

The Appalachians have the longest foliage season in the East because their elevation varies so much. The highest summits turn first, and the color works its way down the slopes over several weeks, reaching the mountain valleys late in October. The forests are a rich mix of oaks, hickories, maples, tulip poplars, and sourwoods, which paints the ridges in red, orange, gold, and bronze.

State guides: Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Alabama.

Great Lakes and North Woods

Best time: mid-September to early October. Ely typically peaks first, around Sep 18, and Sturgeon Bay last, around Oct 9.

The North Woods of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have some of the earliest color east of the Rockies, with maples, birches, aspens, and tamaracks. Along the shores of the Great Lakes, the water keeps fall a little milder, so the color there runs later than in the forests inland.

State guides: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan.

Rockies and aspen country

Best time: late September to early October. Kenosha Pass typically peaks first, around Sep 24, and Flagstaff last, around Oct 9.

Fall color in the West is mostly the gold of quaking aspen, often in groves that cover whole mountainsides. The season is early and short, and elevation matters more than latitude: the highest groves turn first, and the color moves downhill over a couple of weeks. The aspens of California’s Eastern Sierra turn on a similar schedule; see California below.

State guides: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Arizona, Wyoming.

California

Best time: late September to late October. Rock Creek Canyon typically peaks first, around Sep 27, and Yosemite Valley last, around Oct 29.

California’s fall color starts high on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, where aspen groves turn gold in the canyons off US 395 in late September and the first half of October. The color reaches Lake Tahoe by mid-October and finishes in late October in lower country, like Mount Shasta, Quincy, and Yosemite Valley, where oaks, bigleaf maples, and dogwoods carry the color.

State guides: California.

Pacific Northwest

Best time: mid-October to early November. Leavenworth typically peaks first, around Oct 15, and Portland last, around Nov 2.

The Pacific Northwest’s forests are mostly evergreen, so fall color is more scattered than in the East: bright yellow bigleaf maples, red and orange vine maples in the understory, and, at higher elevations east of the Cascades, golden larches, conifers that drop their needles each fall. West of the Cascades, the color comes late in the season.

State guides: Washington, Oregon.

Elsewhere worth a trip

Some of the best fall color falls outside the big regions: the canyons of the Black Hills, the sandstone gorges of Kentucky and Ohio, the hills of the Ozarks, and the bigtooth maples of the Texas Hill Country.

How to use these dates

These are typical-year peak dates, not live reports. A warm September, drought, or an early freeze can shift peak by a week or more, so check a local report before a big trip. For the best bets right now, see where to see fall foliage this weekend, or search any city or ZIP code on the foliage map. For how the dates are worked out, see how our forecast works. And for ways to see the color beyond a drive, from trains to boat cruises, see fall foliage tours.