When is Peak Foliage in New Hampshire?
Greetings my foliage friends, there are several questions out there about the fall colors, when are they going to arrive and where will they show up? I hate to say this but all we can give you is a basic guideline because nobody, not even me, can pinpoint exactly where on any given day it will be peak. Also, it differs from Northern New Hampshire to Southern. So from the last week in September for 1st Connecticut Lake to the 3rd week in October for the Southern Border.
I have tried to put some dates for the different areas to give you some ideas below…
But the good news is that if you follow my guidelines you will only be a short drive away. For instance, if you place yourself in Sugar Hill at an Inn or B&B, you will be able to reach most of Northern New Hampshire in about 2 hours (give or take). If you give yourself a long weekend or a week then you can cross over into Vermont and Maine as well.
When equals Where…
If you have been reading my articles for a few years, you have probably heard me say When equals where or visa versa. This simply follows the guidelines that have been true for as long as I have been searching for fall colors. The earlier you need your dates to be, the further north you need to travel to find the fall colors.
Rule 1 for the fall colors
The fall colors follow the cooling temperatures. The jetstream brings the cooler temps down from Canada starting hopefully in Sept and on into October.
Fall colors: 15-25 September in New Hampshire
If you want to see some fall color between 15-25 Sept in New Hampshire, you will visit Pittsburgh New Hampshire, or even further north up by the Connecticut lakes. You might also bring along your passport because if you are that far north you might as well cross over and visit Montreal.
Good News and Bad News
The good news is if you need some plan B’s, there are many covered bridges up that way.
The bad news is that there are more pine trees than hardwoods. While I love seeing a mix of vibrant greens with all the reds and golds during the fall season, up there it’s the opposite. Only a few reds and golds are mixed in with the green pines. If you need help deciding what to wear or what equipment to bring, check out this article on planning.
Rule 2 for the fall colors
The colors usually develop from the higher elevations to the lower and one exception to this is swampy areas. Moist swampy areas will be turning in mid-Sept as well as those hardwoods on the upper elevations of the mountains in New Hampshire. I’m not talking about the peaks of the 4 thousand+ footers (or Mt Washington which tops out at 6,000+).
I’m talking about the sub 3,000ft and down. If you hike these beasts in New Hampshire you know that the higher you go, you will have fewer hardwoods as they give way to pines that can take the cold better than the maples.
Fall colors: 25-30 September in New Hampshire
This is where things “start” to get good. Many people will start to find some really great fall colors in Northern New Hampshire. IT DOES NOT MEAN this is a guarantee! But in my experience, most visitors are pretty happy with what they find.
Where does this “Early” color begin to show up?
The colors will make themselves noticeable in the Great North Woods and the higher elevations of the White Mountains.
The Great North Woods is best known for being heavy in tracts of pine forests. But I can tell you that Route 26 takes you through Errol, Dixville Notch, to Colebrook and I rarely need to go further north than this as seen below. This is just East of Dixville Notch
This Route is far from being all pine trees, as you can see in this image. Also nearby you also have Milan and Stark on or near Routes 110 and 16B.
Lisa and I have made it up to the First CT Lake just once and while we did clear several New Hampshire covered bridges while we were up there we didn’t find much else to take in. We prefer further south like Milan, Stark, and Dixville Notch which have lots of things for us to explore.
That takes you up to the 1st of October and to be honest from this point on, you should be able to find a little fall color down through the White Mountains. As you can see, depending on the year you may have better fall color or not depending on the temps and weather that we actually receive.
1-5 October, White Mountains but what about points North?
This is where it gets fun. You can still find (barring storms and such) great colors off Routes 2, 110, and 16 (north up to Errol) and Route 26 over to Dixville Notch and Colbrook. and looking at these images, even further south.
Some of these are north of the white mountains like the Randolph church off Route 2 or Pondicherry Conservation Area but most of you know the Beaver Pond is down in the Western White Mountains at Kinsman Notch. Weeks State Park was 5 Oct in 2021 which is up near Route 2.
But the Henniker Covered Bridge shot was 4 Oct 2012. So with the right temperatures, the fall colors can reach all the way down to southern New Hampshire BUT… 2012 was a year where the cool temps were popping up early all around New England…
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5-11 October, or the heart of the foliage season in New Hampshire
Here we lead into the long holiday weekend and no matter what you call it, this is when the fall colors are “usually” their best in New Hampshire and across the widest range of fall colors across New Hampshire.
So now you have cleared the Columbus Day Weekend/Indigenous Peoples Day and the colors fading up north of the Whites Mountains and the ski areas may even be starting to make snow on 18 October 2018 at Cannon Mountain.
10- 20 October, The Lakes Region and Points South
Now we are moving south out of the White Mountains and into the Lakes Region around Lake Winnipesaukee you will find Ossipee, Meredith, Wolfeboro, down to Concord, and over to Henniker and Hillsboro (and so many more. No, you do not have the White Mountains but the first image at the top of this page is from the vicinity of Hillsboro.
And the southern areas of New Hampshire are not without their hills. How about a view of Mount Monadnock?
What you find will depend on the year and the weather we have or have not gotten. I hope this helps to give you an idea of where to look and when.
The BIG takeaway For the New Hampshire fall colors…
Hopefully, this will help you make some decisions. The big takeaway is this, it depends entirely on the weather as to what kind of fall colors you get and when and where they will appear or fade. This article is not written for a specific year but will be true for almost every year.
Yes, we will have years that are “Slow-Burn” years and a few (hopefully) where the fall colors show up early, at least in some areas of New England. So hopefully this will help you with your planning.
Jeff Foliage Folger
Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage
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Thank you for all of your detailed insights! You really helped me as I planned our trip 2 years ago. I hope to get back to see this beautiful area again!
I’m glad I could help…