Bainbridge Island, Washington fall foliage

Bloedel Reserve. The island’s best-known fall stop is on the north end: 150 acres of gardens and Northwest woodland. October is its strongest month, when the Japanese maples and the moss garden turn deep reds and coppers.

Grand Forest. In the middle of the island, the Grand Forest has miles of wooded trails through Douglas fir, western red cedar, and bigleaf maple. The maples are the color here, lighting up the trail in yellow under the dark conifers.

Gazzam Lake Nature Preserve. On the west side, this is the largest wildlife preserve on the island. Some of its trails pass bigleaf maples about 100 feet tall, their trunks and branches covered in moss.

Fort Ward Park and Blakely Harbor Park. On the south end, both parks pair shoreline views with fall color. Look for madrones along their sunny edges: the smooth, red-brown bark that peels in thin sheets stands out against the yellow maples.

Suyematsu Farm. Off Day Road, north of Winslow, the farm’s fall pumpkin patch sits on what is described as the oldest continuously farmed land in the Puget Sound area.

Bainbridge Island is a city of about 25,000 people in Puget Sound, just west of Seattle. The city takes in the whole island, which is roughly 10 miles long and 5 miles wide. Most visitors come by ferry from downtown Seattle and land in Winslow, the island’s walkable downtown, where shops, cafes, restaurants, and winery tasting rooms line Winslow Way. At the north end, the Agate Pass Bridge connects the island to the Kitsap Peninsula.

For events, maps, places to eat and stay, and the current ferry schedule, see BainbridgeIsland.com, the island’s independent local guide.

Still mostly green? Leavenworth, WA (86 miles away, higher up) typically peaks about 15 days earlier.

Already past peak? None of the destinations we track within 150 miles of Bainbridge Island typically peaks much later. The island sits close to sea level, so its color is already among the latest in the region.

Outside Winslow, the island’s forest is mostly red alder, bigleaf maple, Douglas fir, western red cedar, western hemlock, and madrone. That mix is why fall here looks different from New England: the conifers stay dark green all year, and the color comes from the broadleaf trees scattered among them.

Bigleaf maple is the island’s main fall color. It has the largest leaves of any maple, and they turn yellow to gold. Vine maple, a small tree of the forest understory, can go orange and red. Red alder is common but adds little color, since its leaves tend to fall while still green or brown. The brightest reds are planted: Japanese maples in gardens like Bloedel Reserve’s, and red maples in yards and along streets.