Today we are going to explore the question, “When is the best time to see fall foliage in Vermont?”. I try each year to give clear answers to this and other questions. The problem is this, there are no simple answers. The following dates are approximate and will work in most years… give or take.

• 20 – 27 Sept, early colors, branches, and single trees. NOT hillsides but there may be nice patches.
• 27 Sept – 5 Oct, Serious colors and in some places (northern Vermont) peak will be seen
• 5 – 10 October, peak colors up in Northern Vermont and serious color/maybe peak will be seen as far south as Woodstock Vt.
• 13 – 20 October, faded color seen up north, slightly past peak in central Vt and peak should be seen in southern Vt.

What this doesn’t take into account are things like elevation, drought, and warm temps. These things also change for whatever location you are in. Lets say you are driving through Plainfield Vermont on Route 2 on 27 Sept. The hills are 200′-800′ high and you are likely to see light color or maybe decent color. But you want better so you go North on Route 2 towards Marshfield VT and take Route 213 (Cabot Rd) North to Cabot Vermont. The lay of the land is climbing and the general elevation of the road is 600′-800′ and the hills are now 1200′ + in elevation.

So the same day and you just drove 15 miles and you (probably are seeing better fall colors because you drove … 20 minutes? and climbed in elevation. Yes it depends on the year whether I’m right but there is a very good chance that I am. Also, just the other side of the town of Cabot is the AM Foster covered bridge where the elevation is higher. (1800′-2000′)

This is what I mean when I say, “If you are not finding good or better fall colors where you are standing, sometimes it’s just a matter of driving a bit further or around the next bend to hit it!”

So in general, the fall colors MAY start during late Sept (20-30th in Northern VT) and “should” last through October 20th in Southern Vermont. During this timeframe, you will be able to find wonderful fall colors in Vermont. It’s all a matter of when and where.

Whether you listen to me at Jeff-Foliage.com, or you visit these websites for their take… Yankee Magazine, Vermont.com, or your other favorite Fall Foliage source, they should “ALL” be telling you about the same things. We (the above-mentioned sources) may differ or even disagree on exact dates but most years we should all be singing the same story. Usually, it will sound like a broken record. Peak fall color will get here the day it gets here…

(*This is permanent as far as I know*)
Driving Alert: The town of Pomfret will CLOSE Cloudland Road from 23 September to 15 October this Fall to stop the level of traffic in front of the Sleepy Hollow farm. The traffic from leaf peepers wanting to visit the farm has been causing so many traffic issues, that the town finally decided to stop all motorized traffic. Also on the other end of Cloudland Road which is Barbor Rd, that is also limited to traffic so no slipping in that way Also if you try to park within walking distance, that will be stopped as well. There is no parking up there.

The Baseline for Vermont Fall Foliage

Early Fall Color in Vermont – In mid to late September you will find some fall colors (EARLY fall colors) in the upper elevations of the Northern Green Mountains, Also on and around Jay Peak and north to the border. (Take a drive along Route 105 which skirts the Canadian border. You will be doing a lot of driving to find just a little bit of fall color. To make all this driving worth your while, mix it up with local festivals which you can find links to on my Fall Foliage Festival page.

Early but near-peak fall color should arrive 1-5 October, I tend to explore the Northeast Kingdom and up along the Canadian Border. There is a library that straddles the border with great history and when you visit there is a line running through the middle of it, read about this Haskell Free library here. and try places like Norton, Island Pond, and Westmore Lake. As well as south to Granby, and Burke VT. (And too many places to mention)

Also, the hills of Peacham down to Pomfret and Groton Vermont are starting to color up nicely by the 5th-12th of October. (Again it depends on the year)

Lisa and I went up to Woodstock Vermont on the 5-7th of Oct 2018. By this time you can expect “nice” but NOT always peak colors around Woodstock unless we get a much cooler Sept into October. (you can read that as an early fall)

The problem we have to deal with is that some trees start early like the paper birch as seen above but the hill above and behind the Middle Covered Bridge is just starting to turn. (Taken 6 October)

But we went exploring north this day (7 Oct 2018), wait, you ask, why north? Well, if the colors are weak where you are then you will need to go north OR go up in elevation. So based on Woodstock Vermont being light color, the better colors are “sure” to be north of us.
To be sure we went a short distance south to Reading of Route 106 out of Woodstock. In 2018 we could still go to the Jenne Farm (Its now a private space)

So we headed 15 miles South on Route 106 and as you can see the trees are starting to turn but nothing I’m writing home over. Here the trees are about what I would call 30-50% towards their Peak fall color potential. But they are not bright as of yet…

Most of the trees are turning (means in the process), a few are still green, and 2-3 are close but not there yet. Still, it’s pretty by my standards…

Basically, another 4-5 days of bright rain-free weather with cold overnight temps should do the trick. Actually, the weather didn’t turn sour for another 9 days (the evening of the 15th turned very windy and rainy) so if you stopped in about the 10th of October in 2018, you should have had wonderful fall colors.

Trade the Jenne Farm for Cloudland Road

Driving Alert: The town of Pomfret will close Cloudland Road from 23 September to 15 October each year to stop the level of traffic in front of the Sleepy Hollow farm. The farm has been causing so many traffic issues, that the town finally decided to stop all motorized traffic. Also on the other end of Cloudland Road which is Barbor Rd, that is also limited traffic so no slipping in that way Also if you try to park within walking distance, that will be stopped as well.

So after that, we went back through Woodstock and caught Cloudland Road, north towards Pomfret Vermont. We found that Pomfret was a little better (and only a few miles more north) and a bit more filled in color-wise but because of the warm fall temps the colors had not yet brightened. either. So we continued north.

As you look at the Vermont countryside north of Woodstock in the above image, you can see the trees have started to turn but not peak yet. We continued driving to the north

How Far North do you have to travel to find Peak

As it was, we still had to go further North by West. We went 8 more miles northwest to Barnard Vermont. You can jump on Route 12 to get there.

Here in Barnard, the colors are much better and only a short trip up Route 12 brought us to them. but when the sun went away, the colors lost their brightness. But this is the way of the fall colors. if you get some bright sun it makes the foliage colors really stand out.

You may be wondering if we saw any really good areas of peak color in Vermont on this trip. About 39 miles north of Woodstock Vermont we saw near-peak fall colors. We had driven up to Groton State Park and Seyon Pond the day before. (seen below)

Needless to say, this would be better at dawn or sunset and we got here are 11:45 so the scene is a bit contrasty. You can see some of the trees are bare amongst the red and orange trees.

But as I have said before, I won’t stop taking pictures just because the sun is too high in the sky. I’m taking these because they are my memories of this trip. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be remembered. I shared this with my wife Lisa and I want to remember these moments forever.

“But Years ago I found “Peak” much Earlier”

I’m going to say it, even if you don’t want to hear it. CLIMATE CHANGE… I’ve ONLY been watching the fall colors for a bit over 20 years and the fall colors are arriving later every year, just in small increments but the days of seeing peak fall colors in September seem to be long gone. If we don’t stop pouring emissions from our cars and manufacturing into the air, things are going to continue to get warmer. If we don’t go energy green, then this will only get worse…

Some of you may be saying, but wait!!! I remember the wonderful fall colors and it was just 35 or 27 September and everything was peak! Well, things have been moving later due to the warmer temps going from September into October. Plus every year is different. Two years before, I captured the picture below on a foggy morning on 7 October when I found Cloudland Road looking like this.

Some of this is better than the average fall color and it was due to the time of day (07:38 AM) Along with the sun just clearing the far hills, some of it is due to the foggy conditions. But while not perfect the fall colors were 3-4 days ahead of 2018 (more or less).

It doesn’t take much for the fall colors to speed up or slow down. A few degrees of temperature lower and a few more sunny days, than the year before and you have a better fall color experience… This is why I try to tell you to…

If you have any questions about the Vermont fall colors, leave them in the comments.

Addendum: This is an article that I think is very important. So I’m including a link to my fall foliage primer. It may provide answers to your queries, but if it doesn’t, feel free to leave a comment at the end of the article.

Till this next autumn… Have a great Fall Foliage Day!

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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