Mt Greylock - Mohawk Trail 10/13/2017 - Poor Foliage Color

[loafer89]

I did the drive to Mt Greylock today with my father. This was the first time we have done a foliage trip together (he is 82) and unfortunately the foliage colors where especially poor. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but these where some of the worst foliage colors I can recall in nearly 30 years of foliage viewing. Most of the landscape was either brown or bare with the exception of green oaks. We drove 1-90 to Route 7 and the summit of Greylock and then backroads to Route 2 and I-91 and home.

Greylock Summit with brown foliage below:



Adams:



One of the brighter areas near the Mohawk Trail:

[ctyanky]

Loafer: thanks for this post. I'm sorry that you had a disappointing drive with your Dad. As I was leaving VT Monday, I took 7 down into CT and the NW hills were early in color and the trees were lush and healthy. Canaan Mtn. all the way from Canaan (route 44 and 7 intersection) to Norfolk on 44 looked "extremely" promising! Another great road is 272 south out of Norfolk. Are you ever in that area? I'm taking route 20 from the Barkhamsted Reservoir to Riverton tomorrow for the Ag fair and then over to Canaan and some back roads all over the NW corner, Litchfield, Cornwall, Goshen, Sharon, Warren and North Granby. With our cold temps last night I expect to see some great color. Perhaps you want to come down from Enfield and head over to those areas this weekend? Or go to the NE corner to Woodstock, Pomfret and the back roads there. This might be it for the foliage this weekend in the extreme CT corners, not sure.....

I was going to go to VT this weekend but am doing both days here in CT instead! Unfortunately, Sunday is going to be 80 but up in our hilltowns it will be in the 70s...... I'm heading to the NE Corner area on Sunday.

Hope you find color here.... good luck! CT

[triz]

TOday wife and I followed your suggestion and went to the Blueberry Lake.
The road that goes from the route 100 to the lake (Plankton road) was gorgeous, especially in some of the back roads. Brilliant colors. I recommend going there!

Also the Peacham area, especially the road to Peacham, was also quite beautiful!

[ctyanky]

Triz! That's great! Blueberry Lake is awesome! Glad you found it. Did you go to the northern edge of the lake for the better views? Where the marshy grasses were? The roads around Warren are terrific, my new favorite is Fuller Hill Road at the summit! Glad I could be of help. Enjoy the rest of your trip!!!!!

[triz]

Yes we went and the view was neat!
Thanks so much!!

On the other hand, southern Vermont still does not have colors!

[loafer89]

Loafer: thanks for this post. I'm sorry that you had a disappointing drive with your Dad. As I was leaving VT Monday, I took 7 down into CT and the NW hills were early in color and the trees were lush and healthy. Canaan Mtn. all the way from Canaan (route 44 and 7 intersection) to Norfolk on 44 looked "extremely" promising! Another great road is 272 south out of Norfolk. Are you ever in that area? I'm taking route 20 from the Barkhamsted Reservoir to Riverton tomorrow for the Ag fair and then over to Canaan and some back roads all over the NW corner, Litchfield, Cornwall, Goshen, Sharon, Warren and North Granby. With our cold temps last night I expect to see some great color. Perhaps you want to come down from Enfield and head over to those areas this weekend? Or go to the NE corner to Woodstock, Pomfret and the back roads there. This might be it for the foliage this weekend in the extreme CT corners, not sure.....

I was going to go to VT this weekend but am doing both days here in CT instead! Unfortunately, Sunday is going to be 80 but up in our hilltowns it will be in the 70s...... I'm heading to the NE Corner area on Sunday.

Hope you find color here.... good luck! CT

I'm not so sure that Connecticut is going to have a good foliage year. What was supposed to be peak in Northwestern Massachusetts was fairly awful, but then again Killington was really nice, so who knows.. The original plan for tomorrow was to go on Route 20 to Route 318, Route 44 to Route 8, Route 4 to Mohawk and then backtrack. The weather for tomorrow looks iffy, but Sunday looks alot better. If you find good color in your travels tomorrow, please let me know.

[ctyanky]

Loafer: I covered 90% of your routes today that you planned on for tomorrow. I would wait till next weekend. We traveled for four hours in the NW corner. Skip the Barkhamsted Reservoir!!! It looks like summer there! We are over a week late, maybe more, in the foliage up there and it was pretty green to say the least. Some of the back roads were approaching peak but the Canaan mountain hillsides were about 35 to 40% in color on 44. Route 44 all the way to Canaan thru Norfolk was very early, spotty patches of color. I think you would waste your time looking for color until next weekend when the foliage is near peak. I didn't see any brown hillsides, just a lot of green trees and some bare trees here and there.

I do have a beautiful road for you to take. At the intersection of 44 and 7 in Canaan, turn south on 7. Turn onto Under Mountain Road and it becomes Canaan Mountain Road to Mountain Road which ends in Norfolk almost at the town center. It is alternating paved and dirt. Just a beautiful back road drive past a lake where the perimeter was just turning color. We hit a lot of towns after the Riverton Fair and had a very long day in the NW hills back roads. A gorgeous fall day in the low 70s and the sky turned blue late morning!

Hope this all helps. I'm skipping the NE corner until next weekend for the same reason. CT