Much has been written about “peak lumber” (try typing super cycle in the search bar at top right corner of this blog).
But have you heard about “peak foliage”? It’s reportedly big business this time of year, attracting tourists from around the world to prime color regions like New England, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Fall foliage hotlines and extensive reports from the U.S. Forest Service even help improve the odds for serious leaf peepers in the crap shoot known as prognosticating peak foliage (it’s said that “one person’s peak is another person’s near miss”). The U.S. Forest Service tells us here that three factors influence the timing of autumn leaf color: leaf pigments, length of night, and weather.
NBC News recently listed the 11 best places to see fall colors: Vermont, New York, Canada :-), Colorado, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Wisconsin, Texas, Oregon, and California. While most all of my customer trips to the Northeast U.S. have been in summer and winter, I was fortunate to catch the earliest pockets of brilliant colors one September, on a long rolling drive through Upstate New York. What a glorious sight.
North of the border, Eastern Canada rightfully “gets all the credit when it comes to exploring the fall colors”. Still, this site offers eight places to enjoy autumn’s beauty in and around the Lower Mainland.
Early last evening, I captured the images below at the end of my foggy street in downtown Vancouver. Has your neighborhood reached peak foliage? Wherever you live, I invite you to send me your colorful autumn photos for sharing. Update: Images added at bottom from the Lake George Region, Adirondack Mountains, NY (with thanks to J. Miller). Update: image at bottom of post added – UBC 10-23-13 (Photo Credit: A. Harder)
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