This is both easy and impossible! To make this simpler for me (and you), I have a page called locations by state and this is some of my favorite locations with directions and shooting tips. It’s not an exhaustive list since every year I find new fall foliage spots and I try to locate them on a map and tell you about them.

I have a Forecast and foliage reports page that you can bookmark. You can find my foliage forecasts and once we get to September I’ll start gathering foliage reports from Photographer friends around New England.

This is where it gets tough. First, the fall colors don’t change all across New England at the same time. Stressed trees or those in swampy areas (we call them Swamp Maples) and those in higher elevations will turn before the ones at a lower elevation near your favorite covered bridge.
Also, they turn first in Canada and then the colors move south into New England. Then in mid-Sept, they begin to arrive in northern Maine and maybe New Hampshire and the North East Kingdom of Vermont.

I usually recommend people show up in early October around the 3rd. and travel north of the White Mountains, over into Rangeley Maine, and then into the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. If you can stay through the 15th of October you will have the highest chance of seeing peak fall colors.

The Big E is a fair in Springfield MA and it runs from September to October. Here is a link to the Big E page describing the fair is here.

Now here is a good question! A single location focuses on the area around the feet of this mountain. I say feet because when you get above a certain level, it goes to scrub pine and above that, you have lichen, moss, and grass. at the top are rocks, period.

I’ve caught really good if not peak in different years between 2 Oct to 7 Oct. You may have to go south of the mountain on Route 16 or North depending on the year, for in no year have I found peak fall colors on all sides on the same day. But! during this week I can usually find one or more sides in full color.

I have found near-peak fall foliage in Vermont starting from around 30 Sept/1Oct and ending down south around 20 Oct. I also have found “nice color” as early as 23 Sept but never earlier than that. Nice color equates to 35% towards peak. It’s usually in places like Hazen’s notch off Route 58.

I’ve never found peak fall foliage before 1 Oct in Peacham VT. I believe it has to do with the temps and weather patterns over Peacham. If we don’t get the frosty nights it will be slow to arrive. (more on this later)

This can be taken a couple of different ways and you can either read the previous answer or… The best times of the day will be at dawn and an hour or two before sunset.
Between these times you will find tons of fall colors but if they are in bright sunlight your camera may record them as washed out due to the brightness of the sun and its overhead position. If it’s an overcast day with a little mist then you may find that the colors are more saturated and this means that you can add the time period outside of dawn and sunset to your shooting times.

That is easy, year-round! We have great skiing in the winter, more history than you can visit in a lifetime, your choice of the ocean or lakes for the spring and summer. Of course, no place in the world beats New England for the fall colors.