Fall foliage on Sep 20th weekend

[newbie]

Hello everyone,

I am very interested in viewing the fall foliage in New England during my trip to New York city in mid-Sep. My wife and I will have the 3 days (9/20 - 9/22) to travel somewhere to view the fall colors. From my initial research I am likely a couple of weeks early and so will have limited options to see peak foliage. I would love your guidance on where I should go for the 3 days (e.g. Catskills vs. drive to Vermont, etc.). Also, any suggestions on where to stay, which drives to take any other interesting things to do (e.g., certain festival, unique activity) would be very helpful. Thank you very much for your help.

[ctyanky]

Hi Newbie! Welcome to our wonderful foliage forum! I will step out on a limb here, not knowing yet what the foliage will do, but you may be at least a week early for color. You may find some early color "peaking out" in the far reaches of Vermont near the border or at the highest elevations in the Green Mountains. Do you have lodging secured? At this juncture, I don't think you would have too much trouble, but some weekends require a two night stay even during that time. If you check, many places are booked even for that weekend due to many destination weddings. Try Airbnb for alternative choices.

What kinds of things do you like to do? As far as activities or festivals, check our board owner's post on this page for all the things going on during that weekend under Foliage Festivals 2019. I highly recommend the Chester Fall Foliage Festival as it is that weekend.

http://www.foliage-vermont.com/fall_festivals.htm

www.chesterfallfestival.org

Depending on where you are situated, we can list lots of back road drives, places of interest and so forth. Remember to get off the main roads into the back roads where you will find Vermont beauty at its best. There are many covered bridges and reservoirs, ponds, lakes and waterfalls that make Vermont's landscape so lovely. You can drive the gap roads in a day and crest the higher elevations along the Green Mountains: Lincoln Gap, Appalachian Gap, Brandon Gap and Middlebury Gap.

Please ask away! We are here to find you the best drives and activities and adventures for your three days! CT

[ctyanky]

PS Another unique alternative would be to take a gondola, lift or tram ride up the ski mountains just for the sheer beauty of viewing the mountain ranges cascading one after the other in the distance. I just made a post about the updated rides for 2019 on this forum. Please call ahead for each one as some don't start weekends until the end of September.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4005

Have a maple creemee while you are out driving around. There is also a post on that here as well by Colorado Mom. Stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury for a cider donut and many wonderful Vermont gifts and baked goods.

The list goes on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ctyanky]

Apple picking sounds great. The orchards are open for picking now as well. I thought of another option and that would be to take a cruise on Lake Champlain on the Spirit of the Ethan Allen! You should tour Burlington if you are nearby! Here is the link for the cruise, it has been on my bucket list for a few years and someday, I will do it!

https://soea.com/

[newbie]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions - this is super helpful. How would the fall foliage in Catskill mountains compare to northern Vermont (say Green Mountain) around 9/20. I am asking this because if both of the experiences will be similar (i.e. I will get to see some but not a lot of color) then is it just easier to drive to Catskill as opposed to Northern Vermont. Depending on what makes most sense - i will go ahead and book my lodging. I am looking forward to your responses, thank you.

[newbie]

This is super helpful, thank you. I am leaning towards booking my hotels closer to my travel date - hopefully by then we will have some idea if there will be good color or not in the Stowe, Green mountain area.

Also, just so i understand - when we say there will not be much color are we referring to a certain type of color (say red) that we generally associate with fall. I live in California and so any color other than green is wonderful for me. So I was thinking that driving would be worth it as far as we see non-green colors everywhere. If we expect the leaves to be largely green around 09/20 then i won't go all the way north.

Thank you again all of you for your invaluable advice.

[wentworth]

You're about a week early at least--Global Warming has made the Fall Colors later the last few years, we used to be able to see incredible color in the Northeast Kingdom by Sept 22, but constantly warmer Septembers have pushed things back

[loafer89]

The extended forecast for late next week is calling for temperatures about 10-15 degrees below normal. I wouldn't be surprised if there was even some frost in the NEK area. That should help bring out early season color.

[triz]

I was going to say the same. Forecast seems to be favorable for early colors.
It will mostly depend on how long will the cooler temperatures last.