Locations by state

To see the articles that pertain to your state of interest just click the state thumbnail that you are interested in seeing fall foliage. The first row leads to Locations in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine

Granby Road between Burke and Guildhall Vermont in Peak fall color
Vermont Locations.
Mirror Lake New Hampshire at dawn in fall colors
New Hampshire Locations.
New England fall foliage stretching as far as the eye can see in Rangeley Lake Maine
Maine foliage locations
Golden maple tree showing off it's Massachusetts fall colors
Massachusetts locations
Henry C. Bowen House in Connecticut also called the rose cottage
Connecticut locations
Rhode Island pond reflection of fall colors
Rhode Island locations

By clicking on the thumbnails on the bottom row, you will visit Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut articles.

I have yet to write an article about Connecticut and only one for Rhode Island but more are in the works… 🙂

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Locations by state — No Comments

  1. Need help planning a 7-day driving fall foliage trip from NYC to Boston, Vermont, etc., any suggestions

    • Well Delia, I have tons of suggestions… 🙂 but when is the question to be decided first… and then, is there any special purpose? There doesn’t have to be but you may have your itinerary in your mind and that will help guide me in making a suggestion or two.. 🙂

      • My husband and I are thinking of flying into NYC, in October then renting a car & drive to Connecticut, Boston, New Hampshire, Maine and back to NYC. That’s all we have for now. I still have to figure out where we will stay in each state. Nothing fancy, because we want to be on the go & next to the next adventure.

        We have never done a Fall Foliage trip & not sure what to do. We also want to be able to walk a lot and have fun.

        Hope that is enough in terms of information to give you to better help us plan. Thank you so much in advance for your insight!

        • Well Delia I have some light reading for you but first, lets talk lodging. I want you to discuss with your husband how much time you want to spend driving versus being out of the car and what I suggest as a rule of thumb, is something less than 300 miles in a day when you are trying to get from point A to point B. Once you are in an area where you want to explore then 100+ is better. This 100+ is not travel to another place but out exploring back roads and ponds and finding trails to hike.
          Now I’m not the greatest repository of lodging recommendations but this article gives you a good idea of places that I have stayed at: https://jeff-foliage.com/2015/04/simple-rules-to-finding-a-room-during-autumn/
          And you should check tripadvisor and Yelp Etc for more ideas I have only in the past 2 years started to stay overnight.

          First a good map book like a Gazetteer which I have links to on my planning tools pages on this site. I never travel with out my Gazetteers in the car. They are topo maps and will point out every trail and pond and covered bridge you may want to find. You will also see all the state parks and more things than I have room for here.

          Now for the “light reading” this article is a good primer on finding peak fall colors and you should also read:
          The Art of getting lost
          The best time for fall foliage in New England
          If it rains here are 8 fun activities to try out.

          Now here are a few articles detailing some things to do in VT, NH and MA
          Vermont:
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2013/05/guildhall-grist-mill-fall-colors/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2014/10/jenne-farm-vermonts-photographed-farm/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/06/the-gray-farm-sleepy-hollow-arnold-john-kaplan/

          New Hampshire:
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2013/12/favorite-franconia-notch-autumn-views/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2013/09/autumn-color-pondicherry-wildlife-refuge/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2013/11/coffin-pond/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2014/06/nh-scenic-drive-autumn/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2013/08/beaver-pond-at-kinsman-notch/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/12/reflections-of-a-white-church-and-fall-foliage/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/09/canterbury-shaker-village-new-hampshire/

          Massachusetts:
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/08/fall-color-in-western-mass/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/08/a-vermont-covered-bridge-in-massachusetts/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/07/the-hartwell-tavern-history-meets-fall-foliage-part-2/
          https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/07/massachusetts-in-the-fall/
          Now my general thought (If I was driving this would be to head North by Northeast with a general heading of Danbury CT which is a little over 2hrs depending on traffic. This may be far enough if you landed late in the day. Now you could also head up along the coast of CT through Norwalk and finally to Mystic (2hr,45min) Mystic seaport is beautiful and has several tall ships at anchor with many activities. But the fall colors won’t really be strong here until the end of Oct.

          If Danbury (or vicinity) is your over night I would then drive north finding your way to route 7. this will take you up into the Litchfield hills which can easily take a day to explore.
          If you continue up Route 7 into Massachusetts, Route 7 will take you through the Berkshires and Mount Greylock (Highest point in MA. From this area I would drive up into Vermont on either Route 7 or Route 100. Route 100 is one of the Grand Dames of scenic byways and if you are doing this during the first week of October then the further north you go, the better the fall colors will be.

          If you stay on Route 7 then directly across from Mt Tabor is Danby VT and the Silas Griffith Inn (from my short list of places stayed at). If you get to Middlebury you could cut across the Green Mountains on Route 125 (a very dramatic road to traverse the Green Mountains by.

          Dates to choose from
          Now much of your travel will depend on the dates you pick.

          The fall colors start from the north in Canada and proceed southward. The earlier your dates the further north you will have to travel to find the brightest colors. You will also find the frustrating but! (This is rule #1) You may find an entire hillside all in color and then for the next 5 miles you may only see 1 tree in 7 in color… I know it may not make sense but it’s the way it is.
          If you choose 27 Sept to 4 October you will be waaaay up north in northern NH/VT or ME. (Think nearer to the Canadian border than the Mass border).
          Also just to confuse you you will most likely find great color between the northern points south to the feet of the White mountains and maybe even the Kancamagus (Kanc) highway (Route 112 between Route 93 to Tamworth NH). I have found beautiful color on the first of Oct along the “Kanc” but further south than that is doubtful until after the 7-10th of Oct.

          7-15 Oct you can call this the sweet spot because in a normal year (And I’m still not sure what a normal year is) you will find the broadest swath of fall color in VT/NH and Maine and down into Massachusetts.

          After the 15th of Oct you are getting from MA into CT and RI and nearing the coastal areas. In fact I can find nice to good color all along the coastal towns near my home of Salem MA and traveling up to Ipswich or Hampton NH or even Harpswell ME can be wonderful drives, right along the ocean’s edge.

          I’m not sure how much more or less you require but I’m only a comment away…

  2. Hi Jeff, thank you very much for all you work on this website. My fiance and I (from Dallas, TX) are planning our first fall foliage trip to Vermont in October. Would greatly appreciate your input so that we can make flight reservation.

    We had an opportunity to grab a timeshare condo in Smugglers’ Notch for the week October 2-9, 2015, in which we will use as our base, and make day trips to Central Vt and possibly White Mountains in NH. Towards to end of the trip, we will be heading to Montreal to visit a friend.

    My fiance is just starting to learn about photography, so our focus for this trip is photography of mostly ground scenic places (a few scenic highways are ok). We like to visit as many winding dirt roads, covered bridges, farms, barns, streams, ponds, falls, etc. as possible within the day. We are not into hiking but short walks are ok. There is so much information out there and we are overwhelmed. We also not good at estimating the time we need for each site seeing location, as we will be stopping and getting out of the car a lot for pictures, mingling with the locals, visiting stores for ice cream, cheese, wine, lunch, etc.

    Below is our tentative plan. Please let us know what you think. We’re a little flexible towards the end of the week. If necessary, we can add a day, and postpone Montreal to the 9th, and depart on the 10th.

    Oct 2: Arrive late pm at Burlington airport, stay in Smugglers’ Notch until Oct. 9.
    Oct 3 – Oct 4: Smugglers’ Notch, NEK, Jeffersonville, Mt. Mansfield gondola, touristy stuff in Stowe: Ben & Jerry, Cidar Mill, church supper, etc.
    Oct 5: Cabot, Marshfield, Lyndonville, St Johnsbury
    Oct 6: Montepelier, Northfield, Barre, Woodstock, Ruthland, Middlebury
    Oct 7: White Mountains
    Oct 8: Montreal (and St. Albans while on the way)
    Oct 9: Burlington area in the day. Flight departs late afternoon.

    Thanks much in advance for your help.
    Jackie

    • Well Jackie I think you are well on your way to a great trip. I have a link to my “locations by state” page and from there you can look at articles that talk about locations and scenic drives that will give you some more ideas.
      Highways can be scenic but they REALLY frown on you pulling over and taking a shot… 🙂 so stay on the secondary roads and enjoy. I can spend all day just listing all the roads you might take but the problem is there are no true bad roads, (just ones you haven’t tried yet).
      I definitely recommend getting a VT and NH Gazetteer. Go to my Planning tools page and I have listings from Amazon where you can purchase them. Click on what you want and it will take you to Amazon to complete your order and yes, they pay me a few pennies if you buy through my page. (helps pay for coffee on the road).

      I assume Cider Mill refers to Cold Hollow cider Mill on Route 100, great cider donuts and hot or cold cider (your choice depending on the temps that day) As for Smuggler’s Notch try this article https://jeff-foliage.com/2015/03/vermonts-twistiest-scenic-autumn-drive/ and remember the locations by state page??? Go halfway down through the comments and you will see my reply to Delia and I posted a ton of links in there. You can also read my Art of getting lost article Also one of my best articles is Finding peak fall foliage. Here you can find out about the stages of fall colors and the nuts and bolts of what to look for…

      Of course keep an eye on my blog, New England fall foliage Facebook page and Twitter account for up to date info… Although my Twitter is full of stuff because I have 20K followers. (Also I’m on instagram and Tumblr as well)

      Lyndonville, train station to explore…
      Northfield, The Northfield 5. (One of my articles on the northfield 5 (five covered bridges, all are red!)
      Woodstock, Covered bridge off the square in town, the Quechee covered bridge nearby and the Taftsville covered bridge also nearby.
      Middlebury, Route 125, twisty road with high walls covered in fall colors!
      What Mtns, Kanc… (Kancamagus highway) Don’t ask just do it.. middle of the week is best for traffic.
      St Albans, get a maple creamy, again don’t ask just do it…

      Ok I have to get back to work… 🙂

  3. Jeff, thank you so much for your amazingly quick response. I went ahead and booked my flights. Will do some more readings and order maps.

    One last question: Are my day trips from Smugglers Notch to Central Vermont and White Mountains doable? I’m especially concerned about White Mountains. Should I secure lodging for 1 night there? Hope it’s not too difficult to find lodging during mid-week.

    Thanks,
    Jackie

    • Well, its 1 hour to Woodstock via I-89 or my preferred Route 100 which is 2 hours but could be worth it.. Now, I look at the northern white mtns and most routes east to the White Mtns will take you 2 or more hours. That is the downside, the upside is those routes will be very scenic.

      It all depends on how far you want to travel in a day. Maybe a night in Jackson or near Conway might be called for… but you have to decide if the 4-5 hour travel time PLUS the driving around is ok. I mean if you stay off the highway the entire trip to and from will be a nice trip but I would err on the side of less driving and more exploring.
      Get a room in Conway, 2.5 hours over and explore the rest of the day. Sleep there and explore all the way back…

      Does that help at all?

  4. Hello. I just signed up for your wonderful site. I am hoping for your help.
    I will arrive at Logan Airport at night on October 3, 2015, and depart from there on October 10. I will rent a car.
    I think New Hampshire is my best bet for colors and for my limited time, and I think White Mountain National Forest is a must.
    Can you give specific itinerary ideas for me with these facts in mind?
    Thank you so much

  5. Hi Jeff,
    Thank you for your blog. We have planned a Fall Foliage trip for my Mom. We wanted her to see Niagara Falls too so we are staying north of Rochester about an hour in a house on Lake Ontario. I can’t seem to find much on your site about New York. Do you have any suggestions? We are planning a trip south to Niagara Falls and then up north to Thousand Islands area. We’ll be leaving October 1st, 2015 through the 6th. Short trip but we are hoping to see some good color. She’s always wanted to do this and having all of her kids there will be a blessing too even if we don’t see major color. Just wondered if you have any suggestions for New York.

    Sabra
    Flower Mound, TX

    • Hi Sabra, We had to drag New York kicking and screaming into ratifying the Constitution so we left them out of New England 🙂 As far as info on NY I have a link on the foliage article’s pages. on the left side (I believe). Also there is one article (currently) on the site for New York. https://jeff-foliage.com/2012/05/guest-post-fall-foliage-locations-in-new-york/ written by New York Photographer, Elisa Shaw. In fact she is working on a new one for me and in a few weeks it will be live on the site. Then you can ask her about specific locations. I think her article will be in early July.