New England Foliage Blog →
Planning your Fall Foliage trip part 2
Look beyond Peak fall color
by Jeff "Foliage" Folger
This was the only tree in color this year. Sometimes it's like that so I enjoy what I find.
Not a promising start to my day!
Just after the earlier picture I found this one on route 112 west of Woodstock NH. There is a pull out there and a small parking lot.
Greetings Foliage Seekers!
I'm going to start this now because it always comes up. I'm sure you want to make sure you hit right at the peak of fall color. As a photographer I want the same thing and I have to tell you that over the years, sometimes I've been successful and other years I haven't.
In fact I'm obsessive about it but one thing I've learned is that at the end of the day it's been the people I've met and the new places I've discovered that made the day really worthwhile and if I bring home a few great pictures then all is good.
This is one reason I travel over three thousand miles in a couple of short months! I get to travel with an objective and I can bring you some wonderful pictures to view here! What I will try to do here, is give you some suggestions on how to maximize your chances of finding Peak foliage.
To start off though, If the only reason for coming to New England is our wonderful (but sometimes elusive) Peak foliage then I'm afraid you will probably leave unhappy. I'm constantly asked "when is the best time to be up here?" My answer is "all year!" but that's for another article.
I need to remind all of you about one of the biggest misconceptions during the fall foliage season. The biggest reason to be here is to enjoy oneself. If you also find great fall foliage, then that's a bonus!
My view on obsessing about peak fall foliage is this: (whether it's you or me):
this is something I made up (I think)...
If your main reason to be here is peak foliage and nothing else, then you've already missed it!
For as long as I've lived here, I can safely say that I've only caught what I felt was peak a few times. (And I live here!)
Some years are bad for the fall leaves when we have a long dry summer or a very wet rainy one. Mother Nature is fickle and never likes us to get complacent in our search for that singular fall foliage event. She always keeps us guessing.
So called experts (me included) will tell you based on our past experience, when and where we think you should find it but we have to guess at what Mother Nature will deliver to us each year.
Now everyone's view of "Peak Fall Foliage" is subjective to their experience. I've seen people pulled over on the highway which to my eyes was a sea of green leaves as far as you can see. But these folks found a single red swamp maple and they are snapping away fast and furious of that one tree. In their experience this is peak and they are happy.
My friend Jimmy from California traveled across most of New England and felt that he didn't really find peak. He even messaged me on Twitter and I told him where I just found "good" color and he kept saying that it wasn't peak! He's also coming back this fall and even now he's taking what he learned last year and revising his plans for this year. (More on this in a few weeks when I post an interview with him)
Here is my definition of peak:
From where you are standing, every tree that is not an evergreen has turned a color that is not green and most all leaves are still on the trees.
This almost never occurs in my experience.
Peak is an undulating wave of color that like the ocean moves in currents and eddy's that never flow straight (as much as we would hope). If you look at the first picture below you would assume that I had found peak. I can tell you that if I had turned around and snapped a picture from behind and showed you that one, then you would see that the other trees behind me were still green or bare. Is it a wonderful picture? Yes but is it peak, sadly no, at least, not by my definition.
I hope to hear from you throughout the summer and if you have any questions please feel free to ask them here in the comments section or over in the foliage forum and I and the other forum regulars will do their best to answer them
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