Timing is everything when it comes to catching fall colors and, for RV travelers, snagging campground sites.
By Jeff Crider
Fall is my favorite time of year, and even though I’ve lived most of my life in Southern California, I’ve always had a fascination with fall colors and places to find them. Growing up RVing with my parents, I quickly learned that leaves change based on a variety of factors, including altitude and geographic location. Plus, the peak of fall color in an area can vary from year to year by a week or two and sometimes more, depending on the weather.
This lesson was reinforced two years ago when I took what I hoped would be a weeklong bucket-list trip to New England at the end of September, thinking I would catch some of the area’s famous fall colors. Unfortunately, warm weather postponed the peak colors to more than two weeks after my visit.
I drove all through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine and spotted only a handful of maples that had turned, mostly in higher elevations. But the intensity of the reds and oranges I witnessed was so spectacular that I plan to return in the future.
It is tempting to wait until the last minute to schedule a trip to the area, based on input about the pace of changing colors that I receive from my New England contacts. But RV park operators across the United States say that trying to get last-minute campground reservations is a risky strategy, as growing numbers of RVers fan out to their favorite fall color destinations.
Eastern And Midwestern Shades
Rain Holbrook is the owner and manager of Smuggler’s Den Campground, an FMCA commercial member (C12772), in Southwest Harbor, Maine, which borders Acadia National Park on the “Quiet Side” of Mount Desert Island. She said many returning fall campers reserve their sites a year in advance. In addition, dates in early to mid-October get booked up early for the annual Acadia Oktoberfest, set for October 11 and 12 this year. The Acadia Chamber hosts a wine tasting and beer fest at Smuggler’s Den, which brings thousands of people to the area. Events also take place in town that weekend to complement the Acadia Oktoberfest.
Trees in Maine’s Acadia National Park had not yet revealed their autumn beauty when the author photographed them in September 2018.
Early reservations also are recommended for campgrounds near the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile drive through some of the most beautiful Appalachian Mountain scenery in Virginia and North Carolina. “October is a very busy month for fall colors,” said Marla Snead, owner of Linville Falls Campground. The RV park is at an elevation of around 3,500 feet in Linville Falls, North Carolina.
But as in other areas around the United States, it’s hard to predict exactly when the peak colors will arrive. “You kind of shoot for the middle of October and hope you get it,” she said. “Some years it comes early. Some years it comes late. It varies from year to year.”
Naomi Haynes, who owns and operates the 33-site Smoker Holler RV Resort in Sevierville, Tennessee, said many people use campgrounds in her area for fall color trips into Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where campsites are typically booked many months in advance.
“October is always the busiest month of the year here,” she said.
Several areas of the country have annual events that celebrate the turning of the leaves, including Pike County, Illinois, which promotes a self-guided Pike County Fall Color Drive on the third weekend of October. Little towns along the route offer arts and crafts, food, and other attractions as visitors drive the route.
“It is a very popular event,” said Deborah Festa, co-owner of the Jellystone Park at Pine Lakes in Pittsfield, Illinois. “We usually get a lot of folks staying with us.”
Many RVers also like to visit Peaceful Waters Campground in Bloomingdale, Indiana, as they combine their fall foliage tours to include stops at Parke County’s historic covered bridges. There are several other areas of the Midwest and Northeast that have campgrounds close to covered bridges, which make for particularly attractive photo shoots when they are surrounded by autumn leaves.
Western Hues
One of my favorite fall color routes is U.S. 550 in southwest Colorado between Durango and Montrose. I made a trip one year in late September and spent the night in the historic mining town of Silverton. The hillsides of this 9,300-foot-high town were loaded with aspens in peak color.
The Owens Valley near Bishop, California, took on a warm glow last October.
Jane Mullins, of the 39-site Silver Summit RV Park in Silverton, said, “We usually start to see the aspens turn around the third week of September, and they get really pretty around the first or second week of October.”
Dom Burns, who owns and operates the 8,037-foot Buena Vista KOA in Buena Vista, Colorado, said September is a busy month, with leaf peepers from Denver and Colorado Springs coming to his park on weekends and “a decent number of retirees traveling during the week.”
“Generally, they head up over to the St. Elmo ghost town in the mountains to the west of us. They have great colors and they can explore around the ghost town. They can also go to the Hancock Mine and Vicksburg and drive up toward Aspen.”
The Buena Vista Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center also organizes an annual OHV Color Tour, September 17-21 this year, which provides a limited number of off-road vehicle enthusiasts access to area backroads. If you already own an off-road vehicle or even an off-road motorcycle, this lets you explore historic gold and silver mining camps and towns. The week is typically the peak period for fall color in this general area, which has the greatest concentration of 14,000-foot mountains in the United States.
Of course, with Colorado being a favorite fall color destination, campground operators say it’s becoming more important to reserve your campsite as soon as possible.
Cottonwood and sycamore trees near Sedona, Arizona, typically turn around mid- to late October, according to staff at Rancho Sedona RV Park in Sedona.
Bright yellow, gold, and red aspen trees also can be seen in the higher elevations of Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Park in southern Utah as soon as late September, while cottonwoods in Zion National Park are known to keep their color until November.
“When you come to our area in October and November, you’re going to find fall colors almost over a six-week period,” said Mason Walters, general manager of the 129-site Zion River Resort (C8908) in Virgin, Utah, located just outside Zion National Park. “You have this huge window of time to experience fall colors in our area. We have the cottonwood trees. We also have quaking aspens that turn this amazing golden color.”
Zion River Resort is only 1 hour and 15 minutes from Cedar Breaks, Utah, where roads climb to 10,000 feet or higher. Up there, you see spectacular fall color scenery early, while colors along the lower Virgin River Canyon in Zion change later. The variety is made possible because of the different elevations.
But as with other areas of the country, it’s important to reserve sites early.
“People need to book as soon as possible,” Mason said, noting that October is “an extremely popular month” for travel.
In California, some of the best places to see golden aspen trees are along the secondary roads leading into the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range between the towns of Bishop and Bridgeport.
The views of aspens from U.S. Route 395, the main north-south highway, are spectacular, though the peak color periods vary from late September to late October, depending on the weather. I find that the first week of October is often pretty close to the peak period, especially for some of the most spectacular routes, such as the June Lake Loop; the roads leading up to Lundy Lake, Rock Creek Lake, and McGee Creek; as well as the routes in the Bishop Creek area on the road to South Lake. All of these roads are between 7,000 and 9,000 feet or higher, so the aspens start to change colors early.
One of the Sierra range’s largest aspen groves can be seen looking west from U.S. Route 395, between the 8,143-foot Conway Summit and the turnoff to Bodie State Historic Park, one of the largest and best-preserved ghost towns in the West.
While travelers who visit the Eastern Sierra region in late October or November may be too late to see the aspens at their peak, the Owens Valley area between Olancha and Bishop has beautiful cottonwood trees that often reach their peak at this time.
Colors in California’s Yosemite Valley typically begin to change around the end of October.
Visitors to Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks also will see plenty of fall colors throughout the month of October and into early November. The dogwoods and maples turn first, while the oaks tend to reach their peak later. I have often found the fall colors in Yosemite Valley to be at their peak around the first week of November.
Other popular leaf-peeping spots in California include the Hope Valley area near Lake Tahoe, which has clusters of aspen trees silhouetted against dark green pine trees. Eric Gunnison, a camp host with Hope Valley Resort and Campground, noted that the aspen trees typically start turning by mid-September. Make plans, for that campground usually closes for the season by the beginning of October.
No matter where your RV travels take you, the bright reds, oranges, yellows, and golds of autumn make it even more satisfying.
Fall Color Info Online
The websites below are among those that track the progression of autumn colors. Most states’ tourism sites post regular leaf-peeping updates, as do some scenic byways. A general search will turn up more.
Fall color updates:
www.weather.com/maps/fall-foliage
www.newengland.com/seasons/fall/foliage/peak-fall-foliage-map/
www.tripsavvy.com/a-state-by-state-guide-to-fall-colors-3362305
www.tripsavvy.com/best-places-viewing-fall-foliage-pacific-northwest-4176543
www.tripsavvy.com/top-national-parks-for-fall-foliage-4175562
Fall travel on scenic roads and byways:
www.blueridgeparkway.org/fall-color-on-the-parkway
www.10best.com/interests/explore/10-must-see-spots-on-colorados-million-dollar-highway
www.tornatoretravels.com/travel/269/
www.newmexico.org/fall-events/fall-colors
Note: RVers driving or towing a large RV should research their planned routes ahead of time to ensure they will not be impacted by high elevations, narrow or twisted roads, etc.