MONTPELIER, Vt. –Almost every area of the state will be displaying colorful foliage over the next several days, especially after a forecasted hard frost descends upon Vermont Thursday night.
Early color is beginning to appear in patches and bands along the higher elevations and in moist low-lying areas with varying shades of orange, russet, yellow and red. Over the next few days, expect ash trees to begin to turn purple-yellow and native red maples to turn red-yellow.
“After the frost that is expected this evening, we should be seeing some accelerated change,” says Raymond Toolan, forester for Lamoille and Orleans counties. “Look to the higher elevations to catch that first flush of autumn color.”
Best Bets: Route 35 between Townshend and Athens – especially in Grafton – has the beginning of some nice sugar maple foliage changing.
Route 9 between Brattleboro and Bennington is showing color in the higher elevations, as is Route 7 between Danby and Wallingford.
Route 12 between Morrisville and Montpelier is showing some small bursts of color, and some colorful foliage is emerging along Route 15 between Jericho and Johnson.
Vermont Route 114 from Island Pond through Norton and up along the border to Canaan offers some great early season opportunities for color. Look for low-lying hardwood swamps where cold night air settles, producing brilliant red flares of color.
In general, higher elevations will offer the most panoramic views of emerging color across the valleys, and many swamp or marsh areas will offer some of the most vivid and varied early season change.
The Vermont Hospitality Association advises making advance reservations because the most popular lodgings may fill early on busy weekends in late September and the first two weekends in October. Some innkeepers may require a minimum two-night stay, especially on busy weekends.
Vermont tourism officials encourage visitors to take advantage of midweek specials during the foliage season as part of a new statewide “Midweek Peek” promotion. Deals range from discounted lodging to complimentary bike rentals to free Vermont products. For details, visit the Midweek Peek section of our site.
Weekly foliage reports will be available on this web site and also the state’s toll-free visitor information line 1-800-VERMONT. As the season progresses, the reports will be updated twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
This section of our Web site has several tools for planning a Vermont Fall Foliage tour including:
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