Find your fall photo spot

188 verified spots, earliest peak first. Every coordinate and elevation is checked against a real source.

Seasonal model estimate. Timing remains uncertain; check recent reports before traveling. Source: seasonal timing model. Calculated Sep 17, 2026.

Savage River

Denali Park Road, AK · 2,573 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Dwarf birch and willow turn the tundra red on both banks of the braided Savage River, under the gray scree of Healy Ridge. Late August into the first week of September is the window, weeks ahead of the Lower 48.

Past peak
Typical peak
Aug 31 – Sep 8
Carne Mountain

Entiat Mountains, WA · 7,085 ft · Sunrise or sunset

The last mile climbs into a basin of subalpine larch around 6,100 feet, then opens on the ridge to Glacier Peak, Mount Maude, and Seven Fingered Jack. The 3,600 feet of gain keeps the crowd far thinner than the roadside larch hikes on Highway 20.

Past peak
Typical peak
Sep 1 – Sep 9
Blue Lake (Washington Pass)

North Cascades Highway, WA · 6,254 ft · Sunrise

Subalpine larch ring the basin below Liberty Bell Mountain and the Early Winters Spires, which rise straight out of the far shore to the northeast. The larch here go gold in the first half of October, two to three weeks ahead of the western larch down at valley level.

Past peak
Typical peak
Sep 3 – Sep 11
Hatcher Pass

Talkeetna Mountains, AK · 3,830 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Tundra turns red and orange across open alpine bowls above the Little Susitna River, with the road switchbacking through the color. Nothing grows tall at this elevation, so the ridgelines stack cleanly behind each other.

Past peak
Typical peak
Sep 7 – Sep 15
Guardsman Pass

Wasatch Range, UT · 9,704 ft · Overcast

The paved climb from Brighton tops out at 9,704 feet with aspen slopes dropping away toward Heber Valley on the east side. Lower Big Cottonwood adds bigtooth maple, so one drive covers gold at the summit and red at the canyon mouth.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 11 – Sep 19
Holland Falls Trail

Swan Valley, MT · 4,290 ft · Sunset

The trail traverses the north shore a few hundred feet above the water, and at the falls you turn around to a view west down the full length of Holland Lake with larch stacked on both sidewalls. Late October strips the cottonwood and leaves the larch alone against dark fir.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 12 – Sep 20
Snake River Overlook

Grand Teton National Park, WY · 6,906 ft · Sunrise

This is the pullout where Ansel Adams made The Tetons and the Snake River in 1942, with the river curving through cottonwood flats under the range. Conifers have grown up since then, so a longer lens on the bend and the peaks beats copying the wide original.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 12 – Sep 20
Kenosha Pass

Front Range, CO · 9,984 ft · Sunrise

The Colorado Trail crosses the highway here and runs straight into a dense aspen stand, with South Park opening below to the southwest. Backlit trunks in the first half mile of trail are why Denver photographers arrive before six.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 13 – Sep 21
Oxbow Bend

Grand Teton National Park, WY · 6,755 ft · Sunrise

Mount Moran rises nearly 6,000 feet above a slack bend of the Snake River, with aspen and cottonwood packed along the far bank. Windless mornings hold the reflection, and moose working the willow flats turn up in the same frame.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 13 – Sep 21
Redfish Lake

Sawtooth National Recreation Area, ID · 6,547 ft · Sunrise

Grand Mogul and Mount Heyburn close the southwest end of the lake, and aspen stands near the lodge and along Redfish Lake Creek supply the yellow. Shoot from the boat-launch beach at first light while the water is still flat.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 13 – Sep 21
Stanley Lake

Sawtooth National Recreation Area, ID · 6,513 ft · Sunrise

McGown Peak stands off the west end of the lake and reflects the whole way across on a calm morning. Aspen and cottonwood along the inlet and the Stanley Lake Creek bottom lay a yellow band at the base of the peak.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 13 – Sep 21
Kebler Pass

West Elk Mountains, CO · 10,007 ft · Overcast

The road runs 30 miles through one of the largest aspen stands in North America, with white trunks packed against the Ruby Range and Marcellina Mountain. Flat overcast light saturates the leaves and removes the contrast that ruins midday frames in this forest.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 14 – Sep 22
Lake McDonald at Apgar

Glacier National Park, MT · 3,153 ft · Sunrise

From the Apgar shoreline the lake runs northeast toward Stanton Mountain and Mount Vaught, with colored cobbles under clear water in the foreground. Western larch on the lower slopes turn in the last week of October, after the cottonwood along McDonald Creek have gone.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 14 – Sep 22
Lamoille Canyon Road's End

Ruby Mountains, NV · 8,789 ft · Sunrise

Aspen pockets and maple fill a U-shaped glacial trough walled by 10,000-foot Ruby Mountain ridges. Road's End sits in the cirque at the top, where the color runs up the side gullies.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 14 – Sep 22
Last Dollar Road

San Juan Mountains, CO · 10,676 ft · Sunrise

The dirt road climbs out of the Telluride valley through aspen groves to a 10,676-foot saddle with the Sneffels Range on one side and Wilson Peak on the other. Split-rail fence, ranch gates, and narrow bands of trees supply the foreground the paved overlooks lack.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 14 – Sep 22
Schwabacher Landing

Grand Teton National Park, WY · 6,547 ft · Sunrise

Beaver ponds off the main channel give still water the Snake River itself does not, with the Grand, Middle, and South Teton lined up to the west. Cottonwood and aspen along the bank carry the color in the foreground.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 14 – Sep 22
Seeley Lake

Seeley-Swan Valley, MT · 4,029 ft · Sunrise

Western larch line the Clearwater River channel and the marshy north end of the lake, turning butter-yellow well after the aspen have dropped. From the water you shoot east across the lake to the Swan Range with the larch reflected in the shallows.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 14 – Sep 22
Wheeler Peak Campground, Great Basin National Park

Snake Range, NV · 9,904 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Alpine meadow and aspen at just under 10,000 feet under the quartzite cliffs of Wheeler Peak, ringed by dense Engelmann spruce. A mile and a half up the trail is the bristlecone grove, which puts trees thousands of years old in the same frame as aspen that turn in a fortnight.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 14 – Sep 22
Maroon Lake

Elk Mountains, CO · 9,580 ft · Sunrise

Two 14,000-foot peaks sit directly above the outlet of a shallow glacial lake, with aspen ringing the shoreline and the inlet meadow. Still water before eight in the morning holds the full reflection, and a 24-35mm frame from the northeast shore keeps both peaks and the aspen.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 15 – Sep 23
Owl Creek Pass

Uncompahgre National Forest, CO · 10,114 ft · Sunset

The spire of Chimney Rock and the cliff wall of Courthouse Mountain rise straight out of an aspen basin at the top of the pass. Turnouts a mile below the summit stack the aspen in front and the rock behind without needing a hike.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 15 – Sep 23
Sylvan Lake, Custer State Park

Black Hills, SD · 6,149 ft · Sunrise

Granite fins standing straight out of the water at the top of the Needles, the highest spot on this list at over 6,100 feet. Aspen pockets in the granite go first at this elevation, and still water before the wind doubles the rock.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 15 – Sep 23
Lake Metigoshe, Turtle Mountains

Turtle Mountains, ND · 2,138 ft · Sunrise

A wooded lake in the Turtle Mountains on the Manitoba line, where aspen and birch turn the hills a solid yellow that reads nothing like the oak country further south. Still water before the wind picks up doubles the shoreline.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 16 – Sep 24
Roughlock Falls, Spearfish Canyon

Spearfish Canyon, SD · 5,099 ft · Overcast

A wide, stepped fall on Little Spearfish Creek under limestone walls, with aspen and birch turning gold against ponderosa that stays dark all season. The canyon is narrow enough that direct sun only reaches the water for a short window, which is why flat light is the safer call here.

Peak
Typical peak
Sep 17 – Sep 25
Devils Kitchen Overlook

Mount Nebo Scenic Byway, UT · 8,184 ft · Sunset

Orange sandstone hoodoos fill a small amphitheater at the head of Red Creek, with bigtooth maple turning crimson on the slopes around the rim. Red rock and red maple stack in one frame from the deck at the end of the paved path.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 18 – Sep 26
Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

Kootenai River Valley, ID · 1,782 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Valley floor in the far northern panhandle, nearly five thousand feet below the Sawtooth lakes and running on a different tree entirely. Western larch is a deciduous conifer, so the hillsides here go gold in needles rather than leaves and then drop them, which reads nothing like aspen.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 18 – Sep 26
Dallas Divide

San Juan Mountains, CO · 8,983 ft · Sunrise or sunset

The Sneffels Range stands above rolling ranch benches and the weathered fence lines along the highway, with aspen stringers running up every draw. A long lens from the turnouts compresses fence, gold hillside, and peaks into one plane.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 19 – Sep 27
Fish Lake

Fishlake National Forest, UT · 8,848 ft · Sunrise

Utah's largest natural mountain lake sits in a basin rimmed by aspen, including the Pando clone on the southwest side. Calm early mornings lay the gold hillsides on the water, and the shoreline pullouts face the color across the lake.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 19 – Sep 27
Gold Creek Pond

Snoqualmie Pass, WA · 2,536 ft · Sunrise

Vine maple turn scarlet around a paved loop that circles the pond, with the Gold Creek valley and the Chikamin ridgeline lined up to the northeast. Cold mornings put mist on the water, and the shoreline is a five-minute walk from the car.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 19 – Sep 27
Honeymoon Bluff

Gunflint Trail, MN · 1,868 ft · Sunset

A rock ledge 150 feet above Hungry Jack Lake looking due west into the Boundary Waters, with birch and aspen stands broken by dark spruce ridgelines. Tamarack in the bogs turns gold a week or two after the birch drops, giving a late second window.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 19 – Sep 27
Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

Kenai Peninsula, AK · 279 ft · Overcast

Lowland lakes and spruce-birch forest on the Kenai, where Sitka spruce coastal rainforest meets the westernmost boreal forest in North America. Birch and aspen carry the color at a few hundred feet, thousands below the tundra entries further north.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 19 – Sep 27
Pembina Gorge Trailhead

Pembina Gorge, ND · 1,371 ft · Sunset

The deepest cut in North Dakota, holding the largest continuous undisturbed forest in the state on steep valley walls above the Pembina River. Sixteen miles of trail run the rim and the slope, so the gorge can be shot from above or from inside it.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 19 – Sep 27
Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway

Adirondack High Peaks, NY · 4,594 ft · Sunrise or sunset

The toll road ends at a stone castle whose terrace looks southwest over Lake Placid and the MacIntyre Range. Color runs in bands down the slope, with bare summit rock and dark spruce framing the maple and birch below.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 19 – Sep 27
Bobcat Pass

Enchanted Circle, NM · 9,810 ft · Sunset

The highest highway pass in New Mexico, with aspen running up both sides of the saddle and open grass meadows at the top. Late light along the ridgelines separates the aspen edges that midday sun flattens.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 20 – Sep 28
Bridal Veil Falls, Spearfish Canyon

Spearfish Canyon, SD · 4,207 ft · Overcast

A thin ribbon fall dropping off the canyon wall straight beside US-14A, in the lower canyon nearly 900 feet below Roughlock. Same byway, different elevation band, so the two rarely peak on the same weekend.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 20 – Sep 28
Cottonwood Campground, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Little Missouri Badlands, ND · 2,254 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Bottomland cottonwood lines the Little Missouri beneath badland buttes, in the South Unit five miles inside the Medora entrance. Golden cottonwoods contrast with banded clay and dark juniper.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 21 – Sep 29
Lost Lake

Mount Hood National Forest, OR · 3,143 ft · Sunrise

Mount Hood sits southeast across the water and reflects from the north-shore day-use beach on a still morning. Vine maple and bigleaf maple in the old-growth understory along the shoreline loop carry the color at lake level.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 21 – Sep 29
North Lake

Bishop Creek Canyon, CA · 9,252 ft · Sunrise

Aspen groves ring a shallow lake directly under the Piute Crags, and on a windless morning the whole rock wall reflects. Peak gold usually lands in the first week of October.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 21 – Sep 29
Aspen Vista

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, NM · 9,974 ft · Sunrise

An old service road climbs from the picnic area through unbroken aspen toward Tesuque Peak, with the Rio Grande valley showing west through gaps in the trees. The first two miles hold the densest stand and the grade stays easy enough to walk with a tripod.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 22 – Sep 30
Lundy Canyon

Eastern Sierra, CA · 8,133 ft · Overcast

Beaver ponds stair-step through an aspen canyon below Mount Scowden, mixed with dead standing trunks and old mine debris. The first mile past the trailhead holds the densest color.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 22 – Sep 30
Oberg Mountain

North Shore, MN · 1,537 ft · Overcast

Nine overlooks ring the summit loop; the north-facing ones drop onto Oberg Lake with solid sugar maple running to the ridgeline behind it. The south side turns to face Lake Superior and Leveaux Mountain, so both directions work from one 2.2-mile loop.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 22 – Sep 30
Tumwater Canyon

Central Cascades, WA · 1,488 ft · Overcast

US-2 runs ten miles through a granite canyon where vine maple and bigleaf maple fill the slope above the Wenatchee River. Flat light beats sun here because the canyon walls throw hard shadows across the water most of the day.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 22 – Sep 30
Brockway Mountain Drive

Keweenaw Peninsula, MI · 1,335 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Nine miles of ridge road running 700 feet above Lake Superior, with pullouts facing open water one direction and a bowl of maple forest and inland lakes the other. The summit lot gives you both compositions without moving the car.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 23 – Oct 1
Lake of the Clouds Overlook

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, MI · 1,378 ft · Sunrise

The escarpment drops 300 feet to a narrow lake wedged in the Big Carp River valley, with unbroken hardwood ridges running east to the horizon. Morning fog sits on the water and burns off from the far end first, so the layers separate.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 24 – Oct 2
Spooner Lake, Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park

Lake Tahoe Basin, NV · 6,976 ft · Sunrise

Aspen riparian stands ringing a small lake on the Nevada shoulder of the Tahoe basin, with Jeffrey pine holding the slopes dark behind them. A flat two-mile loop keeps water on one side the whole way, so the same grove can be worked backlit and front-lit in one morning.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 24 – Oct 2
Convict Lake

Eastern Sierra, CA · 7,588 ft · Sunrise

Aspen stands on the north shore turn orange against the banded metamorphic rock of Laurel Mountain and Mount Morrison. Shooting from the northeast end puts the full length of the lake between you and the peaks.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 25 – Oct 3
High Falls of the Baptism River

North Shore, MN · 782 ft · Overcast

The tallest waterfall entirely inside Minnesota drops 60 feet into a basalt gorge, with cedar and birch leaning over both rims. A suspension footbridge upstream gives a second angle looking down the length of the gorge.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 25 – Oct 3
Palisade Head

North Shore, MN · 791 ft · Sunrise

A 200-foot rhyolite cliff drops straight into Lake Superior, and the view northeast runs down the shoreline to Shovel Point with birch and aspen packed on the headlands between. First light hits the cliff faces directly and separates the rock from the water.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 25 – Oct 3
Sica Hollow State Park

Coteau des Prairies, SD · 1,947 ft · Overcast

Mature oak forest cut by spring-fed draws on the Coteau des Prairies, four hundred miles east of the Black Hills and a completely different fall. Oak, aspen, maple and elm together give this park a redder palette than anything in the western half of the state.

Approaching peak
Typical peak
Sep 25 – Oct 3
Brownstone Falls

Copper Falls State Park, WI · 1,049 ft · Overcast

Tyler Forks drops 30 feet over black lava rock into the Bad River gorge, framed by maple and birch growing straight out of the canyon walls. The railed platform sits across the gorge, so the falls and both walls fit one frame.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 26 – Oct 4
Height of Land

Rangeley Lakes, ME · 2,228 ft · Sunset

The stone-walled pull-off on ME 17 sits high above Mooselookmeguntic Lake, with its islands and hardwood ridges stepping back toward the New Hampshire line. A 200mm lens compresses the shoreline and the ridges into stacked bands of color.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 26 – Oct 4
Kancamagus Highway at Kancamagus Pass

White Mountain National Forest, NH · 2,854 ft · Sunrise or sunset

NH Route 112 crosses its height of land at 2,855 feet between the Pemigewasset Wilderness and the Hancock ridges, with no buildings, wires, or services along 34 miles of road. The paved overlooks within two miles of the pass look down on unbroken hardwood slopes.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 26 – Oct 4
Mineral Springs Falls

Sheyenne River Valley, ND · 1,181 ft · Overcast

A small spring-fed drop in the wooded Sheyenne valley in Ransom County, and one of very few natural falls in the state. Flat light is the whole game on a low-volume fall like this, where direct sun blows the water out and leaves the oak behind it muddy.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 26 – Oct 4
Mount Willard

Crawford Notch, NH · 2,846 ft · Sunrise

The summit ledges end at a drop straight into the U-shaped floor of Crawford Notch, with US Route 302 and the Saco River threading south between the walls. Both sides of the notch face the camera at once, so the shot holds up in flat light as well as at dawn.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 26 – Oct 4
Potawatomi Falls

Black River National Scenic Byway, MI · 844 ft · Overcast

The Black River spreads 30 feet wide over a conglomerate shelf and drops into a hemlock-shaded chute, with maple leaves collecting in the pools below. Five waterfalls sit within four miles of byway, so one stop rarely ends the day.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 26 – Oct 4
Silver Lake, June Lake Loop

June Lake Loop, CA · 7,221 ft · Sunrise

Aspen and cottonwood line the Rush Creek benches along CA-158, with Carson Peak closing the view south down Silver Lake. The old boat dock and split-rail fences give the foreground something to hold.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 26 – Oct 4
Artists Bluff

Franconia Notch, NH · 2,337 ft · Sunset

A bare rock knob above Echo Lake looks down the length of Franconia Notch, with Cannon Mountain's cliffs facing you across the gap. Both notch walls fill the frame, so the color reads as two opposing slopes rather than flat canopy.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 27 – Oct 5
Miners Castle Overlook

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI · 672 ft · Sunset

A sandstone turret juts off the cliff line into turquoise shallows, with maple and birch crowding the rim behind it and Grand Island across the water. It is the only Pictured Rocks cliff you can shoot from above without a boat.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 27 – Oct 5
Mount Greylock Summit

Berkshires, MA · 3,493 ft · Sunrise

The Veterans War Memorial Tower stands on open summit lawn with the Taconics and the Hopper cirque dropping away on all sides. Color here runs about a week ahead of the valley floor, so a single trip can cover both stages.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 27 – Oct 5
Rib Mountain State Park

Central Wisconsin, WI · 1,917 ft · Sunset

A quartzite ridge standing 700 feet above the Wisconsin River valley, with an observation tower clearing the treeline for a full circle over Wausau and the surrounding hardwood. Oak holds rust color here a week past the maples, which stretches the season.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 27 – Oct 5
Smugglers Notch

Mount Mansfield & Stowe, VT · 2,123 ft · Overcast

VT Route 108 squeezes between the cliffs of Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak, passing car-sized boulders that fell into the roadway. Birch and maple grow straight out of the talus, so color sits directly against wet gray rock.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 27 – Oct 5
Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Tahquamenon Falls State Park, MI · 670 ft · Overcast

A 200-foot-wide curtain of tannin-stained amber water drops 50 feet into a gorge walled with maple and hemlock. The gorge overlook puts the falls upstream and slightly below you, so the color wraps both sides of the frame.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 27 – Oct 5
Bald Mountain (Rondaxe) Fire Tower

Central Adirondacks, NY · 2,336 ft · Sunset

Open rock ledges and a restored steel fire tower sit above the Fulton Chain of Lakes, stacking water and hardwood ridgeline in one frame. The bare ledge supplies foreground rock without hiking above treeline.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 28 – Oct 6
Heart Lake at Adirondak Loj

Adirondack High Peaks, NY · 2,164 ft · Sunrise

From the north shore the MacIntyre Range fills the water to the south-southwest, with Algonquin and Wright reflected on still mornings. Birch and maple ring the shoreline and hold a warm band against the dark conifer slopes.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 28 – Oct 6
Lockett Meadow

San Francisco Peaks, AZ · 8,571 ft · Sunrise

A ring of aspen encloses a meadow at the mouth of the Inner Basin, with Humphreys and Agassiz Peaks standing over the west side. The trunks are dense enough to shoot straight into the grove and leave the sky out.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 28 – Oct 6
Cadillac Mountain Summit

Acadia National Park, ME · 1,527 ft · Sunrise

The east ledges look out over Frenchman Bay and the Porcupine Islands as the sun clears the Atlantic, with low scrub oak and maple on the summit turning rust and orange. Work the pink granite slabs as foreground instead of shooting from the parking area.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
Eagle Tower, Peninsula State Park

Door County, WI · 774 ft · Sunset

A 60-foot tower on Eagle Bluff puts you above the canopy with Eagle Harbor, Horseshoe Island, and the Green Bay shoreline laid out below. Late light rakes across the treetops from behind the tower and lifts the maple crowns off the water.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
Lake Willoughby North Beach

Northeast Kingdom, VT · 1,169 ft · Sunrise

From the north beach the lake runs four miles south into the gap between Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor, whose cliffs drop straight into the water. Hardwoods on both walls turn while the spruce above them stays dark, so the ridges read as bands.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
Mount Washington Auto Road

Presidential Range, NH · 1,564 ft · Sunrise

The toll road climbs 7.6 miles from the Glen House to the 6,288-foot summit, crossing hardwood, spruce, krummholz, and bare rock in under an hour. Pullouts above the four-mile mark look down into the Great Gulf, where the color line shows as a distinct band across the slopes.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
Smith Falls State Park

Niobrara National Scenic River, NE · 2,375 ft · Overcast

Nebraska's tallest waterfall, a 63-foot spring-fed drop into a cool side canyon off the Niobrara. The canyon holds Ice Age relict paper birch and spruce left behind when the glaciers retreated, so the palette here is birch gold against dark conifer rather than the oak rust the rest of the state turns.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
South Falls, Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park, OR · 1,142 ft · Overcast

Bigleaf maple on the canyon rim drop yellow leaves into the bowl below the 177-foot falls, and the trail passes behind the curtain for a backlit frame shot through the water. Silver Creek runs low in October, so the falls read as a thin ribbon rather than a wall.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
Sugar Hill / Sunset Hill Road

Franconia Notch region, NH · 1,557 ft · Sunset

Open hayfields on the ridge look east across the Gale River valley to Cannon Mountain and Mount Lafayette, about eight miles off. Late sun front-lights the ridgeline while the fields and roadside maples in front of you fall into shadow.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
Tunnel of Trees (M-119)

Tunnel of Trees Heritage Route, MI · 699 ft · Overcast

Twenty miles of one-lane blacktop with no shoulder and maple limbs closing overhead, Lake Michigan flashing through the trees on the west side. Flat light keeps the canopy saturated instead of blowing out the gaps.

First color
Typical peak
Sep 30 – Oct 8
Screw Auger Falls

Grafton Notch, ME · 1,057 ft · Overcast

The Bear River drops through a polished granite slot only a few feet wide, with yellow birch and maple leaning in over the gorge walls. Flat overcast light keeps the wet rock from blowing out and buys you multi-second exposures.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 1 – Oct 9
Jenne Farm

Woodstock & Reading, VT · 1,427 ft · Sunrise

Red barns and a white farmhouse sit on an open hillside with stone walls running through the pasture in front of them. The maple woods on the slope behind turn before the pasture edge does, which gives the frame two color layers.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 2 – Oct 10
Moss Glen Falls

Mount Mansfield & Stowe, VT · 934 ft · Overcast

Moss Glen Brook drops about 125 feet through a narrow slate gorge with birch and maple leaning over the rim from both sides. The walls stay shaded all day, so leaves read against dark wet rock instead of blown-out sky.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 2 – Oct 10
Multnomah Falls

Columbia River Gorge, OR · 122 ft · Overcast

Bigleaf maple frame the 620-foot falls from the paved plaza, and Benson Bridge gives a higher line that separates the upper and lower drops. Overcast keeps the white water from blowing out against the wet basalt.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 2 – Oct 10
Spruce Knob

Monongahela National Forest, WV · 4,863 ft · Sunrise or sunset

West Virginia's highest point, with a stone observation tower standing over red spruce that the wind has flagged to one side. The summit rim opens on every compass point, so color reads as bands running down the Allegheny ridges rather than a single view.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 2 – Oct 10
Stowe Community Church

Mount Mansfield & Stowe, VT · 716 ft · Sunrise or sunset

The white clapboard steeple closes the north end of Main Street with maples along both sidewalks and wooded hills rising behind the village. Shooting from the sidewalk a block south stacks the spire against colored slope.

Archive photograph
© Andy Feliciotti

First color
Typical peak
Oct 2 – Oct 10
Devil's Doorway, East Bluff

Baraboo Hills, WI · 1,398 ft · Sunset

A freestanding quartzite arch stands on the bluff edge with the lake 400 feet below and oak-maple talus slopes filling the frame behind it. Shooting through the arch gives you a hard dark foreground against the color on the opposite bluff.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 3 – Oct 11
Hairpin Turn Overlook

Mohawk Trail, MA · 1,686 ft · Sunset

The wall at the turn looks southwest down the Hoosic Valley to Mount Greylock, with the North Adams mill roofs on the valley floor. Late afternoon light rakes the ridge and separates the maple from the dark conifer.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 3 – Oct 11
Mount Battie Summit

Midcoast Maine, ME · 788 ft · Sunrise

A stone tower stands on open ledge above Camden harbor, with the schooner fleet, the Penobscot Bay islands, and hardwood slopes stacked below in one frame. Morning light comes off the bay and hits the town and the hillside straight on.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 3 – Oct 11
Sleepy Hollow Farm

Woodstock & Pomfret, VT · 1,053 ft · Sunrise

A white 1780s farmhouse and red barns sit in a hollow below Cloudland Road, with a curving drive lined by sugar maples dropping toward them. Morning fog pools in the bowl and separates the buildings from the wooded hillside behind.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 3 – Oct 11
Bear Rocks Preserve

Dolly Sods, WV · 3,999 ft · Sunrise

Sandstone slabs and wind-flagged spruce sit on the lip of the Allegheny Front, with blueberry and huckleberry heath going crimson underneath by early October. The ground drops more than 1,000 feet in the first half mile east, so sunrise often comes up over fog filling the valley below the rocks.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 4 – Oct 12
Chocorua Lake

Mount Chocorua & Tamworth, NH · 574 ft · Sunrise

Mount Chocorua's bare rock cone rises four miles north across the water and reflects on the lake on windless mornings. Shoreline pines break up the foreground and the hardwood slopes below the summit carry the color.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 4 – Oct 12
Jordan Pond South Shore

Acadia National Park, ME · 272 ft · Sunrise

The twin granite domes of the Bubbles close off the far end of the pond, with red maple and birch running down both shorelines toward them. Wind drops overnight, so the water holds a full mirror of the domes until mid-morning.

Archive photograph
© Andy Feliciotti

First color
Typical peak
Oct 4 – Oct 12
Kaaterskill Falls

Catskills, NY · 1,843 ft · Overcast

A two-tier drop of 231 feet lands in a hemlock amphitheater, and from the base the full column reads against the wet rock wall. Flat light holds the highlights on the water while the maples above the rim stay saturated.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 4 – Oct 12
Kuwohi (Clingmans Dome)

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN · 6,643 ft · Sunrise or sunset

The spiral observation tower puts the camera above the spruce-fir canopy at the highest point in Tennessee, with color running down every drainage in view. The conifers stay black-green, so turning birch and beech read as distinct bands instead of a wash.

First color
Typical peak
Oct 4 – Oct 12
Fire Point

Driftless Area, IA · 909 ft · Sunrise

A bluff-edge opening 300 feet above the Mississippi at the top of the North Unit climb, with birch and maple on the rim and backwater sloughs below. The trail up passes conical and bear-shaped mounds under closed hardwood canopy.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 5 – Oct 13
Hawksbill Summit

Shenandoah National Park, VA · 4,050 ft · Sunset

Shenandoah's high point, with a stone viewing platform above talus slopes and a relict stand of balsam fir and red spruce. Ridges run north and south below the rock, and the color line works down them through October so you can shoot the same frame three weeks running.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 5 – Oct 13
Inspiration Point, Letchworth State Park

Letchworth / Genesee Gorge, NY · 1,204 ft · Sunset

The railing frames Middle and Upper Falls upriver to the southwest, with the Portage rail bridge above them and forested gorge walls on both sides. Late light rakes the west wall, and fog often sits in the river bend on cold mornings.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 5 – Oct 13
Leonard Harrison Overlook

Pine Creek Gorge, PA · 1,826 ft · Sunrise

The east rim of Pine Creek Gorge stands 800 feet above the water, with the opposite wall and a bend of Pine Creek filling the frame. Morning sun front-lights the west rim and valley fog often sits in the gorge below the railing.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 5 – Oct 13
Mount Davis Observation Tower

Allegheny Mountains, PA · 3,213 ft · Sunrise

Pennsylvania's highest ground is a flat plateau of scrub oak and blueberry with a steel tower that clears the canopy. From the platform the color runs across Somerset County ridges in every direction, so the tower is the only way to get above the trees.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 5 – Oct 13
Pikes Peak State Park Overlook

Driftless Area, IA · 1,043 ft · Sunrise

A 500-foot Driftless bluff above the Mississippi looking at the Wisconsin River confluence and its braided sandbars. Maple and oak on the near slope drop below the deck rail and give a color foreground for the channel.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 5 – Oct 13
Round Bald, Roan Mountain

Roan Highlands, TN · 5,826 ft · Sunrise

A grass bald on the Appalachian Trail with Jane Bald and Grassy Ridge stepping away to the east and nothing blocking the horizon. The grass goes bronze and the blueberry and flame azalea in the swales turn red against the black-green spruce along the ridge.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 5 – Oct 13
Canyon Vista, Worlds End

Loyalsock Canyon, PA · 1,750 ft · Sunrise

A drive-up ledge about 800 feet above Loyalsock Creek, looking northwest down a steep hardwood valley with hemlock stringers in the draws. The Rock Garden boulder field sits a short distance up the same road when you want foreground.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 6 – Oct 14
Colton Point Overlook

Pine Creek Gorge, PA · 1,684 ft · Sunset

The quieter west rim sits 142 feet lower than Leonard Harrison and looks east across the gorge at the promontory the crowds are standing on. Evening light hits the east wall square, and the CCC stone overlooks give a built foreground.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 6 – Oct 14
Craggy Pinnacle

Blue Ridge Parkway, NC · 5,892 ft · Sunrise or sunset

A bare rock summit above the Craggy Gardens rhododendron thickets with a full circle of ridgelines, the Parkway tunnel below and the Asheville watershed reservoir to the north. Yellow birch and mountain ash color the slopes while the summit heath goes rust, and the gap here traps morning cloud.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 6 – Oct 14
Ganoga Falls, Ricketts Glen

Endless Mountains, PA · 1,939 ft · Overcast

A 94-foot curtain of water drops through a hemlock ravine where sugar maple and yellow birch lean over Kitchen Creek. Wet shale and constant spray keep the rock dark, so leaf color reads strongest under flat cloud cover.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 6 – Oct 14
High Point Monument

Kittatinny Ridge, NJ · 1,803 ft · Sunset

New Jersey's highest point, where a 220-foot obelisk rises straight out of the ridge-top forest. The monument is the subject, framed against color from the summit loop, and the deck at the top opens onto farmland in three states.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 6 – Oct 14
Lake Minnewaska

Shawangunk Ridge, NY · 1,644 ft · Sunset

White conglomerate cliffs drop straight into a small sky lake, and the carriage road loop gives elevated angles from every side. Pitch pine on the ledges stays green against red maple and blueberry, so the color reads as separated blocks rather than a wash.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 6 – Oct 14
Cowee Mountains Overlook

Blue Ridge Parkway, NC · 5,950 ft · Sunset

Ridgelines stack back in five or six separated layers to the southwest, which is the reason this pullout is the standard haze-and-backlight frame on the southern Parkway. At 5,950 feet the near slope is already past peak while the far valleys are still green.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 7 – Oct 15
Enfield Lookout

Quabbin Reservoir, MA · 800 ft · Sunrise

The platform sits roughly 280 feet above the reservoir and faces northwest across open water toward the wooded hills of the drowned Swift River valley. Red maple on the near shoreline turns first and reads hard against the blue water.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 7 – Oct 15
Hogback Overlook

Shenandoah National Park, VA · 3,385 ft · Sunset

The longest pullout on Skyline Drive looks northwest over the bends of the Shenandoah River with oak and hickory ridges falling away in front of it. The river holds evening light where it loops through the valley farms, 2,800 feet below the wall.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 7 – Oct 15
Taughannock Falls Overlook

Finger Lakes, NY · 731 ft · Sunrise

The rim railing looks southwest into the gorge at a 215-foot plunge backed by a 400-foot amphitheater wall. Hardwoods on the far rim catch first light while the falls stay shaded, which keeps the exposure range manageable.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 7 – Oct 15
Thorofare Mountain Overlook

Shenandoah National Park, VA · 3,595 ft · Sunrise

The highest overlook on Skyline Drive, facing east across the hollows toward Thorofare Mountain and the Piedmont beyond. First light comes up behind the ridges and picks out fog sitting in the drainages 1,500 feet below.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 7 – Oct 15
Watkins Glen Gorge - Rainbow Falls

Finger Lakes, NY · 810 ft · Overcast

Rainbow Falls spills across the Gorge Trail beneath a stone footbridge, with wet shale walls and hemlock closing the top of the frame. Color enters overhead rather than at eye level, so a vertical composition up the glen works best.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 7 – Oct 15
Blackwater Falls

Blackwater Canyon, WV · 2,980 ft · Overcast

A 57-foot curtain of tannin-stained water drops over sandstone with hemlock and birch closing both canyon walls. The lower deck stands level with the plunge pool, so the falls fill the frame with canyon color stacked behind them.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 8 – Oct 16
Lindy Point Overlook

Blackwater Canyon, WV · 3,054 ft · Sunset

A railed rock ledge with a wind-bent pine on the point stands 500 feet above the floor of Blackwater Canyon. Late light runs straight down the canyon to the west and separates the near rim from the ridges stacked behind it.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 8 – Oct 16
Perkins Memorial Tower, Bear Mountain

Hudson Valley, NY · 1,299 ft · Sunset

The stone tower on the summit opens a full circle over the Hudson Highlands, with the river, the Bear Mountain Bridge and Iona Island below. Oak-dominated slopes turn later than the Catskills, so color holds here into late October.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 8 – Oct 16
South Sugarloaf Summit

Pioneer Valley, MA · 646 ft · Sunrise

The observation deck looks straight down the Connecticut River where it bends past Sunderland, with farm fields and oxbows filling the valley floor. Fog sits on the river for an hour after sunrise and leaves the far ridges layered behind it.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 8 – Oct 16
Valley View

Yosemite Valley, CA · 3,979 ft · Sunset

Black oak and bigleaf maple turn along the Merced River with El Capitan on the left and Bridalveil Fall on the right. By late October the river runs low enough to work the boulders in the foreground.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 8 – Oct 16
Ashokan Reservoir Promenade

Catskills, NY · 604 ft · Sunrise

The paved dike walkway puts open water between the camera and the Burroughs Range, so Wittenberg and Cornell sit above a clean reflection to the west-northwest. Calm early air gives a mirrored ridgeline with no foreground clutter.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Baughman Rock Overlook

Laurel Highlands, PA · 2,012 ft · Sunrise

A sandstone ledge roughly 780 feet above the Youghiogheny gorge, looking east up-river at Ohiopyle's forested walls. The exposed slab works as foreground and nothing blocks the drop from the lens to the river.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Fontenelle Forest Boardwalk

Missouri River bluffs, NE · 1,160 ft · Overcast

Oak savanna and bluff hardwood fifteen minutes from downtown Omaha, with a mile of raised boardwalk running out through the canopy. Flat light suits a closed canopy, and the boardwalk gives a clean receding line that a leaf-covered forest floor never does.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Hawk Mountain North Lookout

Kittatinny Ridge, PA · 1,521 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Boulder seating on the ridge crest with a 200-degree view north over the Kettle and the ridges beyond it. Migrating raptors cross at eye level through October, which is the reason to carry the long lens up.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Lake Waramaug State Park

Litchfield Hills, CT · 713 ft · Sunrise

The park holds the northwest tip of the lake and looks southeast down its full length toward the wooded hills above the vineyards. The bay off the picnic area stays flat before sunrise and returns a clean reflection of the far shore.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Mount Tammany, Delaware Water Gap

Delaware Water Gap, NJ · 1,441 ft · Sunrise

The open rock ledge at the top of the Red Dot Trail looks southwest through the gap at Mount Minsi and the Delaware River bending below. Early sun clears the ridge behind you and front-lights the Pennsylvania wall across the water.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Muddy Creek Falls, Swallow Falls

Youghiogheny Highlands, MD · 2,319 ft · Overcast

Maryland's tallest free-falling waterfall drops 53 feet over a sandstone lip inside an old-growth hemlock and white pine stand. The dark conifers hold the edges of the frame while red maple and yellow birch supply the color along the creek.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Central Iowa Prairie, IA · 893 ft · Sunrise

Six thousand acres of reconstructed tallgrass prairie and oak savanna in central Iowa, away from the Driftless bluffs that carry the rest of the state. Scattered savanna oaks over bronze grass is the composition, and low side light separates the two better than midday will.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Newfound Gap Overlook

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN · 5,046 ft · Sunrise

The Rockefeller Memorial terrace looks southeast down the Oconaluftee drainage, where you stand in already-turned birch and beech while the valley 3,000 feet below is still green. Sunrise fills the drainage with stacked fog layers.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Peck Pond, Pulaski State Park

Northwest Rhode Island, RI · 515 ft · Sunrise

A 13-acre pond ringed by red maple swamp that turns deep red a week before the surrounding oak uplands. The loop trail keeps water on one side the whole way, so the reflection can be worked from several angles in one morning.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 9 – Oct 17
Brandywine Falls

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, OH · 797 ft · Overcast

A 60-foot bridal-veil fall steps down Berea sandstone and shale ledges with beech and maple crowding the rim above the plunge pool. The upper deck lines up the full drop; the lower deck sets branches across the top of the frame.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 10 – Oct 18
Graveyard Fields Overlook

Blue Ridge Parkway, NC · 5,120 ft · Sunset

The overlook drops into a treeless bowl of blueberry and briar with the Yellowstone Prong cutting through the middle and Graveyard Ridge closing the background. The ground cover turns deep red about two weeks before the maples in the valleys below, so the foreground carries the frame.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 10 – Oct 18
Kent Falls

Litchfield Hills, CT · 387 ft · Overcast

Falls Brook drops 250 feet over a run of limestone ledges, and the covered bridge at the base gives a built foreground most Connecticut waterfalls lack. Sugar maple and beech hang directly over the lower cascade.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 10 – Oct 18
Max Patch

Pisgah National Forest, NC · 4,629 ft · Sunrise or sunset

A mown grass bald on the Appalachian Trail with an unobstructed ring of ridgelines, including the Smokies crest to the west. The bald goes straw gold while maple and cherry fire up in the coves below the rim, giving a clean foreground-to-background separation.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 10 – Oct 18
Ravens Roost Overlook

Blue Ridge Parkway, VA · 3,200 ft · Sunset

Granite ledges drop off the west side of the Parkway with a 180-degree opening over the Shenandoah Valley. Ravens and vultures work the updraft at eye level, and the rim rock gives a foreground the roadside overlooks nearby do not have.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 10 – Oct 18
Rough Ridge Overlook

Blue Ridge Parkway, NC · 4,442 ft · Sunset

A wooden boardwalk over open quartzite with a direct look down at the Linn Cove Viaduct curling around the flank of Grandfather Mountain. Blueberry and huckleberry on the outcrop turn scarlet roughly a week ahead of the hardwood canopy under the bridge.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 10 – Oct 18
West Fork of Oak Creek

Oak Creek Canyon, AZ · 5,331 ft · Overcast

Bigtooth maple and Arizona sycamore fill a canyon barely 200 feet wide, with red Coconino sandstone rising straight off the creek. Shade or overcast keeps the walls from blowing out against the yellow canopy.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 10 – Oct 18
Lovers Leap Overlook

Illinois River Valley, IL · 551 ft · Sunrise

A St. Peter sandstone butte roughly 100 feet above the Illinois River, with the lock and dam upriver and oak-covered bluffs running downstream. River fog on cold mornings stacks behind the near timber and gives the flat valley depth.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 11 – Oct 19
Olney Pond, Lincoln Woods State Park

Blackstone Valley, RI · 196 ft · Sunrise

Rhode Island's first state park, 627 acres of glacial boulder field and hardwood around Olney Pond ten minutes from Providence. The erratics give a foreground that most pond shots in this state do not have, and the circumferential road puts a car on the water at several angles.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 11 – Oct 19
Stepstone Falls, Arcadia Management Area

Arcadia Management Area, RI · 266 ft · Overcast

A run of low stone ledges on the Wood River in the largest block of forest in Rhode Island, dropping in a stair rather than a single fall. Nothing here is tall, so the frame is built out of moving water and the oak-hickory canopy over it, which wants flat light.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 11 – Oct 19
Brasstown Bald Observation Deck

Chattahoochee National Forest, GA · 4,784 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Georgia's highest summit carries a 360-degree observation deck above the surrounding ridges, so color reads as receding layers rather than one hillside. Peak arrives here a week or two ahead of the valleys below.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 12 – Oct 20
Chapman Falls, Devil's Hopyard State Park

Eightmile River, CT · 194 ft · Overcast

More than sixty feet of stepped drops over Scotland Schist on the Wild and Scenic Eightmile River, in the oak half of Connecticut rather than the sugar maple hills in the northwest. The surround runs rust and bronze here, and the stepped ledges give the water structure that flat light keeps readable.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 12 – Oct 20
Chimney Rock, Catoctin Mountain

Catoctin Mountain, MD · 1,395 ft · Sunrise

A quartzite outcrop on the east face of Catoctin Mountain looking down over Thurmont and the Monocacy Valley. Broken rock ledges give a hard foreground against the oak and maple color dropping away below.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 12 – Oct 20
Indian Cave State Park

Missouri River bluffs, NE · 944 ft · Sunrise

Three thousand acres of loess bluff forest above the Missouri, steep enough to surprise anyone who expects Nebraska to be flat. The park carries flora of southern affinities, so bur oak and hickory hold the dry ridges while basswood fills the draws and the color arrives in layers rather than all at once.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 12 – Oct 20
Glade Creek Grist Mill

New River Gorge, WV · 2,277 ft · Overcast

A working reconstruction of a 19th-century mill sits directly over the ledges of Glade Creek, with maples closing the hollow on three sides. Flat overcast light holds detail in the white water and the weathered board siding at the same exposure.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 13 – Oct 21
Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Passaic River Basin, NJ · 238 ft · Sunrise

Twelve square miles of swamp and upland oak twenty-six miles west of Times Square, more than a thousand feet below the Kittatinny ridges that are the state's other entries. Standing water under bare-legged hardwood is the composition, and it is close enough to the city to be worth a weekday dawn.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 13 – Oct 21
Seneca Rocks

Monongahela National Forest, WV · 1,567 ft · Sunset

The quartzite fin stands 900 feet above the North Fork valley, and the boardwalk crosses the river with pasture and hardwoods in the foreground. Afternoon sun lights the west face while the valley maples turn a week or two after the ridges above.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 13 – Oct 21
Steamboat Rock, Clifton Gorge

Little Miami River, OH · 912 ft · Overcast

Dolomite blocks pinch the Little Miami into a narrow chute below Steamboat Rock, with relict hemlock on the cold north wall and sugar maple on the rim. The rim trail gives a downstream line that holds moving water and the gorge wall in one frame.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 13 – Oct 21
Abbott Lake at Peaks of Otter

Blue Ridge Parkway, VA · 2,492 ft · Sunrise

Sharp Top rises about 1,300 feet due south of the lake, and the loop trail puts the whole cone and its reflection in one frame on a calm morning. Shoreline hardwoods turn a week or more after the summits, so the foreground and the peak rarely color together.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 14 – Oct 22
Mabry Mill

Blue Ridge Parkway, VA · 2,842 ft · Sunrise

The 1905 gristmill and its wooden flume stand behind a small pond that holds the reflection when the air is still at dawn. Maples on the far bank close the frame, and the water goes flat again for a few minutes after the first tour bus leaves.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 14 – Oct 22
Price Lake Overlook

Blue Ridge Parkway, NC · 3,385 ft · Sunrise

A shallow parkway lake with the Grandfather Mountain ridge standing behind it, and the water is flat enough at first light to hold the full reflection. Sugar maple and yellow birch ring the shoreline right down to the waterline, so the color doubles.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 14 – Oct 22
Sunset Point, Turkey Run

Sugar Creek, IN · 552 ft · Sunset

A sandstone bluff above Sugar Creek where white sycamore trunks line the water and hemlock leans off the far bank. Late light runs down the creek corridor and lights the opposite bluff while the near side goes to shadow.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 14 – Oct 22
Upper Falls, Old Man's Cave

Hocking Hills, OH · 852 ft · Overcast

A chute drops through a slot in Blackhand sandstone at the head of the Old Man's Cave gorge, with hemlock roots hanging over both walls. Shoot from the stone bridge or the stairs below, where wet rock and fallen maple leaves hold color under cloud.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 14 – Oct 22
Hesitation Point

Brown County Hills, IN · 1,004 ft · Sunrise

The highest pull-off in Brown County State Park looks across ridge after ridge of maple and tulip poplar with no roofs or towers in the frame. Valley fog holds for an hour past sunrise and separates the ridge lines into bands.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 15 – Oct 23
Black Rock Mountain Summit Overlook

Blue Ridge Mountains, GA · 3,622 ft · Sunrise

The summit overlooks sit on the Eastern Continental Divide and drop into the valleys toward North Carolina, stacking ridge lines four and five deep. Morning fog pools below and leaves the colored ridge tops standing above it.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 16 – Oct 24
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

Rio Grande Valley, NM · 4,518 ft · Sunrise

Cottonwood bosque along the Rio Grande between the Chupadera and San Pascual ranges, more than five thousand feet below the aspen country in the north of the state. Cottonwood gold against desert scrub and bare mountain is the whole composition here, and the refuge loop puts the light behind it at dawn.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 16 – Oct 24
Sassafras Mountain Observation Tower

Jocassee Gorges, SC · 3,553 ft · Sunrise or sunset

South Carolina's high point carries a steel tower that clears the treeline and opens views into the Jocassee Gorges and across the state line. The deck is open on all sides, so sunrise and sunset both work from the same footprint.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 16 – Oct 24
White Clay Creek State Park

Delaware Piedmont, DE · 144 ft · Sunrise

Rolling Piedmont north of Newark, the hilly end of a state better known for salt marsh and cypress. Creek bottom holds fog into the first hour while the meadow edges above it are already lit, which is the shot worth driving for here.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 16 – Oct 24
Caesars Head Overlook

Blue Ridge Escarpment, SC · 3,215 ft · Sunrise

A gneiss outcrop standing roughly 2,000 feet above the Piedmont, with the Jones Gap headwaters below and Table Rock off to the southwest. Morning inversions put a cloud deck under the overlook rail.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 17 – Oct 25
Chimney Top Rock

Red River Gorge, KY · 1,155 ft · Sunrise

A sandstone pillar at the end of a ridge with the Red River about 400 feet below and cliff lines running out on both sides. Fog fills the gorge on cold October mornings and burns off through the color.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 17 – Oct 25
Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge

Muscatatuck River Bottoms, IN · 578 ft · Sunrise

Bottomland and shallow marsh along the Muscatatuck in southern Indiana, water-level country rather than the ridge overlooks the state already has. Oak and hickory carry the color and the impoundments give it somewhere to land.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 17 – Oct 25
Natural Bridge Arch

Natural Bridge State Resort Park, KY · 1,280 ft · Sunrise

A 78-foot sandstone arch you can walk across, with hardwood ridges of the Red River Gorge country running out below it. Shooting from Lookout Point across the ravine puts the arch and the color in the same frame.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 17 – Oct 25
Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Delaware Bay, DE · 7 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Sixteen thousand acres on Delaware Bay, four-fifths of it tidal salt marsh going bronze while the upland woods turn behind it. This is a horizon-and-sky problem rather than a canopy one, and the low sun runs the length of the marsh at both ends of the day.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Boulder Bridge, Rock Creek Park

Rock Creek Park, DC · 71 ft · Overcast

A 1902 arch of unmortared fieldstone carrying Beach Drive over Rock Creek, sunk in a tulip poplar and beech ravine. Flat cloud keeps the boulders and the water dark, which is the only way the yellow canopy above them holds saturation.

Archive photograph
© Andy Feliciotti

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Cataloochee Valley

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NC · 2,624 ft · Sunrise

Open pasture on a Smokies valley floor with Palmer Chapel, the Caldwell House and split-rail fence lines standing in the fields. Elk graze the meadows at dawn and fog holds on the Cataloochee Creek bottom until mid-morning.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Cross Timbers State Park, Toronto Lake

Verdigris River Valley, KS · 963 ft · Overcast

An old-growth Cross Timbers remnant on the escarpment above Toronto Lake, where centuries-old post oaks stand short, thick and crooked rather than tall. Flat light holds the bark texture and the dull rust canopy that direct sun flattens out.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Ha Ha Tonka Castle Bluff

Lake of the Ozarks, MO · 902 ft · Sunset

Stone walls and empty window arches of a 1905 mansion sit on a bluff about 250 feet above the Niangua arm of Lake of the Ozarks. Oak and maple on the karst slopes fill the drop between the ruins and the water, and low sun rakes the limestone.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Look Rock Tower, Foothills Parkway

Foothills Parkway, TN · 2,651 ft · Sunrise or sunset

A concrete observation tower on a low outlier ridge with the full Smokies crest lined up to the east and the Tennessee Valley opening west. At 2,650 feet it holds color after the high country is bare, and the elevation gap makes the crest read as a separate band.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge

Marais des Cygnes River bottoms, KS · 808 ft · Overcast

The largest bottomland hardwood forest in Kansas, oak and hickory over flat river floodplain rather than the prairie the state is known for. The canopy closes overhead, so flat light reads better here than low sun, which only catches trunks.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN · 2,550 ft · Overcast

A one-way single-lane loop through old-growth hemlock and poplar with rhododendron tunnels, stream crossings and the Ephraim Bales and Alfred Reagan cabins. Flat overcast light works better than sun here because the canopy closes overhead and the creek stays in shadow.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 18 – Oct 26
Garden of the Gods Observation Trail

Shawnee Hills, IL · 817 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Camel Rock and a line of wind-cut sandstone blocks sit on a ridge above unbroken hickory and black gum forest in the Shawnee National Forest. The flagstone trail puts the formations in the near frame with the wilderness ridge stacked behind them.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 19 – Oct 27
McKittrick Canyon

Guadalupe Mountains National Park, TX · 5,014 ft · Overcast

Bigtooth maple, velvet ash, and chinkapin oak follow a spring-fed creek walled in by fossil limestone reef. The Pratt Cabin stretch 2.4 miles in has the tightest concentration of maple over water.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 19 – Oct 27
Theodore Roosevelt Island

Potomac River, DC · 38 ft · Sunrise

An 88-acre wooded island in the Potomac with a boardwalk over tidal swamp along its southeast side. River fog sits in that marsh on calm mornings after a cold night, and the swamp maples there turn ahead of anything on the mainland.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 19 – Oct 27
Tidal Basin

National Mall, DC · 10 ft · Sunrise

The cherries that draw the April crowds go bronze and dull red in late October, a week or so behind Rock Creek. From the northwest bank the Jefferson Memorial sits across the water at 157 degrees, so first light rakes the far shore while the near trees stay in shadow.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 19 – Oct 27
U.S. National Arboretum

Northeast DC, DC · 53 ft · Sunrise or sunset

The 446-acre arboretum includes Japanese maples in the Asian Collections. For a wider frame, the Capitol Columns place 22 sandstone columns in an open meadow.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 19 – Oct 27
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Chesapeake Bay, MD · 4 ft · Sunrise or sunset

Tidal marsh on the Eastern Shore at four feet above sea level, more than two thousand feet below the state's mountain entries. The marsh goes bronze and the loblolly stands hold dark green behind it, which makes this a horizon and reflection problem rather than a canopy one.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 20 – Oct 28
Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge

Southern Illinois, IL · 436 ft · Sunrise

Oak-hickory uplands meet bottomland hardwood around three lakes in southern Illinois. The open water offers room to photograph reflections of the canopy.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 20 – Oct 28
Table Mound Trail, Elk City State Park

Elk City Reservoir, KS · 842 ft · Sunrise

Limestone bluffs on the east shore of Elk City Reservoir, with blackjack and post oak turning rust and deep red against pale shelf rock. The trail alternates between open prairie edge and closed oak-hickory woods, so the same walk gives both a wide lake view and a canopy interior.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 20 – Oct 28
Trap Pond Bald Cypress

Nanticoke Watershed, DE · 42 ft · Sunrise

The northernmost natural stand of bald cypress in the country, standing in tannin-dark water that turns rust-orange in early November. From the day-use shore you shoot east across the pond into the flooded trunks and their reflections.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 20 – Oct 28
Whitaker Point (Hawksbill Crag)

Buffalo National River, AR · 1,915 ft · Sunrise

A thin sandstone beak juts off the rim above the Whitaker Creek hollow with layered Ozark ridges behind it in oak and red maple. A person standing on the crag sets the scale, and fog fills the hollow below on cool mornings.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 20 – Oct 28
Alley Spring Mill

Ozark National Scenic Riverways, MO · 670 ft · Overcast

A red frame roller mill stands at the lip of a spring pool that pushes about 81 million gallons a day toward the Jacks Fork. Maple and sycamore close in behind the building, and cloud cover keeps the red siding and the blue-green water from blowing out.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 21 – Oct 29
Cades Cove Loop Road

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN · 1,712 ft · Sunrise

An 11-mile one-way loop around a valley floor at about 1,700 feet, with log cabins, the John Oliver place and split-rail fence lines running against the ridge wall. Because the cove sits so low it peaks late, often two weeks behind Newfound Gap directly uphill.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 21 – Oct 29
Cumberland Falls

Cumberland Plateau, KY · 807 ft · Overcast

A 68-foot curtain roughly 125 feet wide, backed by hardwood slopes on both banks of the Cumberland River. Flat overcast light holds detail in the whitewater and keeps the maples across the river from blowing out.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 21 – Oct 29
Lake Trahlyta, Vogel State Park

Blue Ridge Mountains, GA · 2,238 ft · Sunrise

A small CCC-built lake ringed by hardwood slopes with Blood Mountain behind it, putting color and its reflection in one frame. Still water before mid-morning is what makes the shot work.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 21 – Oct 29
Mingo National Wildlife Refuge

Mingo Basin, MO · 460 ft · Overcast

A surviving remnant of the cypress-tupelo swamp that once filled the bootheel, in an old abandoned channel of the Mississippi. Cypress runs rust well ahead of the surrounding oak and gum, so the swamp and the ridge above it are rarely doing the same thing at once.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 22 – Oct 30
Steel Creek and Roark Bluff

Buffalo National River, AR · 1,078 ft · Sunset

Roark Bluff runs about 200 feet up across the Buffalo River from the Steel Creek gravel bar, with old sycamores along the water line. Late light warms the bluff face while the river below holds the reflection.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 22 – Oct 30
Emerald Vista, Talimena National Scenic Byway

Winding Stair Mountain, OK · 1,914 ft · Sunrise

A mountain-top vista on the Talimena byway looking down the Ouachita ridge lines and the valleys between them, ranks of hills stacking east toward Arkansas. Shortleaf pine holds the slopes green year-round, so oak and hickory color reads as patches against evergreen instead of a solid wall.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 23 – Oct 31
Bald Rock Overlook, Cheaha State Park

Talladega Mountains, AL · 2,283 ft · Sunset

A bare rock outcrop on the shoulder of Alabama's highest mountain, facing west over the Talladega Valley and national forest. The open ledge gives a foreground the low sun rakes across.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 24 – Nov 1
Cedar Falls Overlook

Arkansas River Valley, AR · 865 ft · Overcast

A railed rim platform looks across the canyon at a 95-foot fall dropping into Cedar Creek, with oak and red maple on both walls. Overcast holds detail in the white water and keeps the wet sandstone from going flat.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 25 – Nov 2
Cedar Lake, Ouachita National Forest

Ouachita Mountains, OK · 1,017 ft · Sunrise

A clear lake below the north face of Winding Stair Mountain, with the ridge standing behind the water. Still mornings put the whole slope on the surface, and the pine understory gives the oak color something dark to sit against.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 26 – Nov 3
Little River Falls

Little River Canyon National Preserve, AL · 1,171 ft · Overcast

A 45-foot cascade at the head of Little River Canyon, framed by sandstone ledges and hardwoods along the rim. Color runs late here, often holding into the first week of November.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 26 – Nov 3
Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

Tennessee River Valley, AL · 565 ft · Sunrise

Tupelo swamp and backwater embayment on the Tennessee River near Decatur, a thousand feet below the Talladega ridges and a wholly different fall. Standing water and still air early give the swamp a mirror the mountains cannot offer.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 28 – Nov 5
Beavers Bend State Park, Mountain Fork River

Broken Bow Lake, OK · 473 ft · Overcast

The Mountain Fork River runs out of the base of Broken Bow Lake through pine and hardwood bottom, tight enough that the far bank fills the frame. Flat light keeps the water readable and stops the pine from going black next to the oaks.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 29 – Nov 6
Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge

Lower Colorado River, AZ · 486 ft · Sunrise

One of the last naturally regenerated cottonwood-willow stands on the lower Colorado, eight thousand feet below the aspen on the San Francisco Peaks. Green gallery forest in a bare desert canyon is the whole picture, and it goes gold against red rock rather than against more forest.

No change
Typical peak
Oct 29 – Nov 6
Santee National Wildlife Refuge

Lake Marion, SC · 78 ft · Sunrise

Mixed hardwood and pine along the north shore of Lake Marion, three thousand feet below the escarpment overlooks that were the state's only entries. Loblolly holds green through the season, so the hardwood turn reads as patches against it rather than a full canopy.

No change
Typical peak
Nov 1 – Nov 9
Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge

East Texas Pineywoods, TX · 229 ft · Overcast

One of the best mature flooded bald cypress forests in the country, with trees up to four hundred years old standing in still water. Cypress turns late and rust-brown rather than red, and the uplands behind it are pineywoods oak and hickory, so this is a different Texas fall from the hill country entirely.

No change
Typical peak
Nov 3 – Nov 11
Lost Maples State Natural Area

Texas Hill Country, TX · 1,792 ft · Overcast

Relict bigtooth maples crowd the Sabinal River and Can Creek canyons, isolated stands left over from a cooler climate. Color peaks across the first three weeks of November, later than anywhere else in the region.

No change
Typical peak
Nov 4 – Nov 12

Find your fall photo spot

Savage River

Carne Mountain

Blue Lake (Washington Pass)

Hatcher Pass

Guardsman Pass

Holland Falls Trail

Snake River Overlook

Kenosha Pass

Oxbow Bend

Redfish Lake

Stanley Lake

Kebler Pass

Lake McDonald at Apgar

Lamoille Canyon Road's End

Last Dollar Road

Schwabacher Landing

Seeley Lake

Wheeler Peak Campground, Great Basin National Park

Maroon Lake

Owl Creek Pass

Sylvan Lake, Custer State Park

Lake Metigoshe, Turtle Mountains

Roughlock Falls, Spearfish Canyon

Devils Kitchen Overlook

Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

Dallas Divide

Fish Lake

Gold Creek Pond

Honeymoon Bluff

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

Pembina Gorge Trailhead

Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway

Bobcat Pass

Bridal Veil Falls, Spearfish Canyon

Cottonwood Campground, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Lost Lake

North Lake

Aspen Vista

Lundy Canyon

Oberg Mountain

Tumwater Canyon

Brockway Mountain Drive

Lake of the Clouds Overlook

Spooner Lake, Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park

Convict Lake

High Falls of the Baptism River

Palisade Head

Sica Hollow State Park

Brownstone Falls

Height of Land

Kancamagus Highway at Kancamagus Pass

Mineral Springs Falls

Mount Willard

Potawatomi Falls

Silver Lake, June Lake Loop

Artists Bluff

Miners Castle Overlook

Mount Greylock Summit

Rib Mountain State Park

Smugglers Notch

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

Bald Mountain (Rondaxe) Fire Tower

Heart Lake at Adirondak Loj

Lockett Meadow

Cadillac Mountain Summit

Eagle Tower, Peninsula State Park

Lake Willoughby North Beach

Mount Washington Auto Road

Smith Falls State Park

South Falls, Silver Falls State Park

Sugar Hill / Sunset Hill Road

Tunnel of Trees (M-119)

Screw Auger Falls

Jenne Farm

Moss Glen Falls

Multnomah Falls

Spruce Knob

Stowe Community Church

Devil's Doorway, East Bluff