Archive 2022 · New England Fall Color

Newenglandrocks
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · New England Fall Color

I was just shooting the fall foliage this past weekend in the Mad River Valley and Stowe in Vermont. For those of you wanting broad vistas, the White Mountains in New Hampshire are generally better, because there are many hikes that are less strenuous than the efforts required to get out to places like Sunset Ridge near the Mad River Glen ski resort. But if you are interested in more intimate shots, I think that there is still another week of great foliage in the MRV. Based on what I saw driving through Southern Vermont on the way home to metro Boston, I'd say that next weekend will be great for Southern Vermont. But if it isn't it is worth doing the 1-2 hour drive up Route 89 to anything exit 9 or points North. The brilliance of the foliage is just outstanding. This is a low res SOOC shot this past weekend, to give you some idea of where the foliage is ATM

ILCE-9 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens 148mm f/4.0 1/320s 500 ISO +0.3 EV

Oct 13, 2022 at 05:19 AM

Ed McGuirk
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · New England Fall Color

amv8

As predicted, the summer drought brought an early, brief and brilliant color display in northern NH and VT. This was amplified by temperatures up there in the upper 20's and low 30's during the first week of October. The cold accelerated the season. As G. Dan Mitchell noted, you could visibly see it turn by day, which is unusual, normally it lasts longer at a slower pace of turn, but the cold changed that. I shot in northern NH from 10/2 thru 10/8, it was one of the best foliage displays that I have seen in many years. But by 10/8 you could see it was already starting to go to past peak north of the notches.

I live in eastern MA, in the suburbs of Boston, where as of today 10/13 it is still 70% green. I shot in the Quabbin Reservoir area of central MA on 10/11 and 10/12, and it was maybe 60% to 70% turned to color.. The good news is that the drought did not hurt the quality of the color, it was bold and brilliant (although slightly early forthat location, again as predicted).

The bad news is that all of New England is forecast to get heavy rain and high winds (25mph +) on 10/13 and 10/14. This will take down the leaves on trees that have already turned color. So I would guess VT and NH will lose most of their leaves, except maybe in extreme southern sections of those states. In MA we will get the same thing, but a lower percent of trees have already turned color. So from 10/15 on-wards MA will have some bare trees mixed on with trees that haven't turned as of today when the storm hits (the wind is not enough to strip green trees). The Berkshires are at higher elevation than Central and Eastern MA, so they will likely be more effected by today's storm. Where you will find color it should be good and not dull like I was worried we might get due to the drought. but the wind will have uneven effects, so you might have to drive around to find areas that were less affected by the wind.

I would avoid visiting northern NH and VT after 10/15 unless you are looking for significant leaf drop on the ground.

Here is a link to report by Jeff "Foliage" discussing the storm and its possible effects

https://jeff-foliage.com/2022/10/will-the-wind-rain-ruin-peak-fall-colors/

Oct 13, 2022 at 10:30 AM

gdanmitchell
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · New England Fall Color

We're back here in California now and starting to go through the images brought back from our early-October visit to (mostly) New Hampshire, (a bit of) Vermont, and (a couple days in) Manhattan. One of those things is not like the others, but I digress... ;-)

I have my first photograph from the trip up in the most recent of my daily photogrfaphy posts at my website. I'll add the photograph to this FM post below, but you can read a bit more at the link, too.

We drove over the Kancamagus (which I can now more or less pronounce!) Parkway to arrive in Lincoln, NH late on Tuesday, October 4. The conditions were somewhat cloudy, which is my preference, and we stopped briefly that day, but returned a few times over the next days as we explored here and over a wider range of New Hampshire locations ranging from the obvious popular spots to a few "random rides" up interesting gravel side roads.

I've thought a lot about the relationships between photographing autumn color in New England and in California's Sierra, both as a result of this trip and because I recently did a B&H podcast with Jerry Monkman comparing the two locations. Many of the fundamentals of how we photograph fall color are similar or the same in both places, though the nature of the terrain, the sources of the color, the timing of the transition, and more are somewhat different. The relatively greater accessibility of some of the New England locations also seems to produce some serious crowds on peak days — the warnings about the parkway being a parking lot on weekends seemed apt as we watched crowds assemble on our last Friday in the area!

Dan

http://gallery.gdanmitchell.com/gallery/var/albums/NaturalWorld/TheLandscape/New-England/NewEnglandWoods07NewHampshireColor20221005.jpg

Oct 13, 2022 at 12:13 PM

amv8
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · New England Fall Color

Ed McGuirk wrote:
amv8

As predicted, the summer drought brought an early, brief and brilliant color display in northern NH and VT. This was amplified by temperatures up there in the upper 20's and low 30's during the first week of October. The cold accelerated the season. As G. Dan Mitchell noted, you could visibly see it turn by day, which is unusual, normally it lasts longer at a slower pace of turn, but the cold changed that. I shot in northern NH from 10/2 thru 10/8, it was one of the best foliage displays that I have seen in many years. But...Show more →

Thanks again Ed. I saw that the rain was coming through over the last couple of days but hadn't noticed how high the wind gusts would be. I think it will be good that we are basing ourselves in central MA to give us options in various directions.

Oct 14, 2022 at 05:07 PM

Ed McGuirk
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · New England Fall Color

amv8

Yesterday afternoon I went back out to Petersham MA and New Salem MA in the Quabbin region after the storm (which was Thursday and Friday morning). The colors were full peak, but there were a lot of trees that were stripped bare by the wind. It was a mixed bag, bare trees interspersed with trees near peak. Trees in more exposed areas like on ponds or at the top of hills were bare. Trees at the bottom of valleys or in the interior of the forest were more protected from the wind, and still had leaves at peak color.

I drove from the Quabbin Reservoir to Concord, MA on Rt 2, and would say that as of 10/15 it was peak color, or pretty close to it. Again some bare trees were mixed in. I have not been out to the Berkshires this year, but because they are at higher elevation than the Quabbin area, I would suspect that the trees there were in full color earlier, and more vulnerable to wind damage. NH and VT had even worse rain and wind than southern NE, so I would guess that it is essentially game over up there.

We are forecast to get another rainstorm on 10/17 and 10/18, which will take down even more leaves. This is how it happens some years. You may have more luck heading east towards Concord and Boston during your visit. I live in the western suburbs of Boston, and we are maybe only about 60% turned here on 10/15, so we have have had less leaf drop from the storm.

Oct 15, 2022 at 09:40 AM

amv8
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · New England Fall Color

Ed McGuirk wrote:
amv8

Yesterday afternoon I went back out to Petersham MA and New Salem MA in the Quabbin region after the storm (which was Thursday and Friday morning). The colors were full peak, but there were a lot of trees that were stripped bare by the wind. It was a mixed bag, bare trees interspersed with trees near peak. Trees in more exposed areas like on ponds or at the top of hills were bare. Trees at the bottom of valleys or in the interior of the forest were more protected from the wind, and still had leaves at peak color.

I...Show more →

Thanks again for the up to the minute observations. This wouldn't be the first time that the weather gods ignored my requests! Maybe we'll hit up the Quabbin reservoir area first and play it by ear afterwards. We're scheduled to be in Boston by Thursday afternoon so I expect we'll have color around the Boston area.

Oct 15, 2022 at 01:58 PM

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