Well, my foliage friends, the fall foliage season is winding down. (this route was driven on 26 Oct 2020) Lisa and I drove down to Connecticut, checking out Pomfret, Mansfield, and Windham before deciding that unless we drove to the coast, we weren’t going to see many colors.

We did find Sugar Hill Road (a lovely name that prompted us to take it) which we picked up off Old Stafford Rd in Connecticut and we ended up on Route 140. I think an autumn drive along this road should be on your list if you are in Connecticut for late fall. While I’m sure CT still had some decent colors, we were coming up empty.

We are a bit worn out, being that we’ve been on the road every weekend since mid-September, so we drove back up into Massachusetts on Route 5, but the colors were only a little better. I’ve written a few times about past peak or late fall colors, and while they don’t really compare to the more popular bright colors, they are quite pretty in their own right.

Mount Tom Reservation

We were driving up Route 5 (a very nice drive) and Lisa suggested we try the Mount Tom Reservation. So I turned around and started driving up. Yes, I would have missed this spot if she hadn’t suggested it (One of the many reasons I love her). We started with the observation tower, and its views of Easthampton MA, and then we took the North Road.

On North Road, we found there were more lookouts with many parking spots to get views of the town of East Hampton and beyond.

No Fall Colors? Go for the Pumpkins

So even though we saw only a little fall color on the trip so far, I was also looking for other fall images that I could photograph. As we drove into Hatfield MA, we saw several farms with farm stands. Then we saw a field with pumpkins and at the end of the field was a haunted old gray barn…

Well maybe not haunted, but if I was running things I would fix that, at least around Halloween… 🙂 We then headed for…

Historic Deerfield Massachusetts

To start off with Lisa and I are a little leary of going where the crowds are (during COVID), so we didn’t go visit Yankee Candle’s Flagship Store. Instead, we headed into the historic section of Deerfield and parked so we could walk around (and social distance). Tickets for the homes are timed so we decided to not do that either. We just walked around and enjoyed the period homes. One of my favorites is a home where they go out of their gourds… Literally!

Most of the homes in Historic Deerfield are either personal homes or part of the museum. We just explored the main street and enjoyed the different period buildings.

We also explored the gift shop in Historic Deerfield which is right next to the post office.

Poet’s Seat Tower

As we were leaving Greenfield, Lisa spotted a castle or something castle-like, but then we passed it before I could see it. So I turned around and drove from Route 5 toward Rocky Mountain Park. There on the top of the cliff was a stone tower. I found a road that goes right up to it.

The tower was built in 1912 to honor Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, an obscure poet and contemporary of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Tuckerman was a Greenfield Massachusetts resident and apparently loved the autumn as well, and in one of his sonnets, commented on the brevity of the season,

“And Change, with hurried hand, has swept these scenes:
The woods have fallen; across the meadow-lot
The hunter’s trail and trap-path is forgot;
And fire has drunk the swamps of evergreens!”

Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

The Poet’s Seat Tower sits on a high narrow ridge line, and when you climb the tower, you can look down on Greenfield on one side and on the other side of the Poet’s Seat Tower, you will see Turners Falls.

After this discovery, we drove back down to Route 5 and got on our way home again. Another 351 miles traveling in search of the fall colors. I hope you noticed one thing… Over the past few weeks, and as the fall colors became harder to find, Lisa and I found other things to make memories about. Whether we found castles, churches, covered bridges, or just a small little village that we haven’t visited before, ew just made sure that our day was interesting even when the colors weren’t.

The fall colors are quickly flowing southward into New York, Pennsylvania, and beyond. I said in my last article, Boston, and the cities along the coast and other bodies of water, will still have fall colors.

Enjoy the foliage you see and make memories!

Jeff Foliage Folger

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

Visit my Amazon affiliate store for items that Lisa and I have curated for you. These items are either New England-made or things we think will make your fall foliage trip more successful.

• Visit my Fine Art America Gallery
• Visit my Amazon store to pick up New England-related materials
• Visit my Pictorem Gallery (Free shipping in the US and Canada)
• My Facebook foliage page
• Threads.net/@Jeff_Foliage
• Follow our new Fall Foliage FB Group!
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• You can visit Lisa’s Artist Facebook Page by clicking here