Destinations

New England

6 destinations

Peak October 9 – October 25

The classic American leaf-peeping heartland: sugar maples, white-steepled villages, and mountain byways from the Green Mountains to the Berkshires, peaking north to south from late September through mid-October.

Mid-Atlantic

7 destinations

Peak October 12 – November 4

From the Adirondacks and Catskills down the Appalachian spine to Virginia's Blue Ridge, the Mid-Atlantic stretches the season deep into November. Big oak and maple color sits within a day trip of the East Coast's largest cities.

Southeast

10 destinations

Peak October 24 – December 4

The Southern Appalachians hold some of the most biodiverse hardwood forest on Earth. The Smokies and Blue Ridge Parkway lead a season that starts at elevation in early October and runs toward the Gulf states into late November.

Midwest

12 destinations

Peak September 29 – October 24

Maple and oak country around the Great Lakes and beyond: Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin's Door County, and river-bluff drives along the Mississippi, with color sweeping south from late September through October.

Rockies

5 destinations

Peak October 8 – October 14

Aspen country. Gold sweeps through Colorado's high passes, the Tetons, and Montana's larch forests in a short, dramatic window, mostly mid-September to early October and earlier the higher you go.

Southwest

5 destinations

Peak October 19 – November 16

Desert states with real mountain fall color: aspens on Arizona's San Francisco Peaks and New Mexico's Sangre de Cristos, bigtooth maples in the Texas Hill Country, and canyon cottonwoods that glow gold into November.

West Coast & Alaska

4 destinations

Peak September 2 – November 16

The Pacific states run one of the longest, most varied seasons anywhere, from Alaska's early-September birch and tundra color through the Cascades' larches and vine maples to California's Eastern Sierra aspen canyons.

Canada

9 destinations

Peak September 1 – October 15

Canada does autumn at scale: Ontario and Quebec's maple forests around Algonquin and the Laurentians, the Maritimes' coastal color, and golden aspen parkland and larch high country out west.

Europe

34 destinations

Peak September 4 – October 30

Golden larch above Alpine villages, beech forests from the Carpathians to the Baltics, and city parks that turn with the vineyards. Europe's season runs roughly late September in the north to mid-November in the south.

Japan

5 destinations

Koyo season moves south across Japan from Hokkaido in late September to Kyoto's temple gardens in late November. Momiji maples, ginkgo avenues, and alpine rowan are tracked with the same devotion as cherry blossoms.

China

3 destinations

China's fall color spans subarctic forest to subtropical mountains, taking in Manchuria's birch and larch, Beijing's Fragrant Hills, the ancient ginkgos of the Qinling, and Jiuzhaigou's lake-mirrored valleys.

More of Asia

8 destinations

Beyond Japan and China lies autumn along the continent's old mountain roads: Turkey's Pontic Mountains, the Caucasus, Iran's Hyrcanian forests, and the Himalayan belt from Kashmir to Bhutan.

Australia

6 destinations

Autumn arrives in April and May, with exotic maples and oaks in hill-station towns, poplar avenues in the high country, and Tasmania's fagus turning gold on the highlands. The fagus is Australia's only winter-deciduous native tree.

New Zealand

2 destinations

Southern-hemisphere gold in April and May: Central Otago's poplars and willows around Arrowtown and Wanaka, and larch and cottonwood color through the Mackenzie basin's turquoise-lake country.

Latin America

7 destinations

From Mexico's oak-and-fir highlands to the far south, where Patagonia's southern beech forests turn the Andes crimson in April and May around Bariloche, Torres del Paine, and Tierra del Fuego.