My Best Pictures of Fall in New Hampshire

Leaf Peepers visit New England from all over the world and it's a very busy tourist season.  Book your reservations early.

Peak foliage season varies from north to south.  Foliage season begins in mid - to late September and is done by the middle to end of October in all of New England. Trees begin to change color in the north first and color changes progress southward.  In my area of south-western New Hampshire it's usually best around the first week of October, but that depends on the weather.

 You can usually find great color someplace by mid September and if we have good weather, it will still be beautiful in mid- October.

Keep in mind that it depends on the tree type also.  Maples are one of the first types to change (and you'll see the brightest colors near swampland), and oaks seem to be last.  Even if there is not much to view in general, you may come across some spectacular looking singular trees.

Not every foliage season is the same.  Color is generally always good, but some years are better than others, for whatever the reasons.  Sometimes the color pops right on time, and at others we wonder where the change is, until suddenly everything is gorgeous all at once.

I've found a pretty cool foliage progression map at the Yankee Foliage site where you can find general, early to late season color using the map of the New England states and a corresponding calendar.  It has a pause button too, which helps.

***********    Peak Foliage Forecast Map   *************

Swampy, wet areas are a good place to first see the bright colors of our Fall foliage.    I lived near a lake for three years and could easily visit during good weather to get some great photos.

Gregg Lake is in a small town and has only a few summer homes along the roadway.  Other camps and cottages, and year round houses are also nestled in woods.  It is also home to the Camp Chenoa Girl Scout Camp which takes up a large section of the shoreline.

This picture was taken in October, 2013

The heron photo is one of my earliest shots. I had moved back to New England in 2005 after living in Florida for nearly thirty years. Although I had family in the northeast, I never had the chance to go back in Fall as my kids were always in school at that time. Our visits were always planned for summertime.

And so, once I lived here again, I could not wait to see the beautiful Fall colors I remembered from long ago.  Visiting the lake is always interesting as the wildlife is everywhere.  It's not unusual to see turtles sunning, herons and loons along with ducks, geese and sometimes a snapping turtle or deer.  It is rumored that there is also a moose close by, and I've seen tracks, but I have never seen him.

Gather pretty leaves and spread them out on a table to get a shot like this one. It's been a popular selling postcard in my Narrow Road Designs store.

For the most part, we look for scenic landscapes in Fall and may overlook the very thing that makes the views so lovely - the leaves!

To the best of my knowledge these are mostly  maple leaves except for the oak leaf in the corner.

It must have been near the end of Fall when I took this photo of the white birch trees. Most of their golden leaves had blown away.

The white bark, yellow leaves and dark branches looked so pretty against the bright, blue sky.

It tends to be very windy near the lake. The north wind sweeps down over the hills and blows over the road and right into the beach end of the lake.  For this reason, the trees along the lake road will lose their foliage first.

One reader of my blog informed me that she was using this photo as a reference to paint a picture.  I always wonder how it turned out.