Scenes of Vermont Forums

Below is a map of where I have traveled to in the past few years. Planning a day trip Wednesday, Oct 1st leaving the North Shore of MA early before dawn. Would greatly appreciate thoughts on where to find strong foliage - especially spots that I may have missed based on the map.

Thanks!

E



More detailed views:

I did a very similar day trip on Saturday from the North Shore. I headed up 93 and color was popping from just below Franconia Notch to just north of the notch (color was just starting in the notch itself). Great reds and oranges this year! I drove up 135 to Lancaster (NH), across to 102 in VT, and then across Granby Rd. to East Burke. Colors seem to be in pockets, but with more color than green. I visited Newark Pond, Bald Hill Pond, Long Pond, Lake Willoughby, and Crystal Lake. All had a good deal of color around them. Headed down 91/93 and through Sugar Hill (NH) on the way home. Lots of reds on the mountain vistas there. Though there may still be a few pockets of green, once you hit the color, it's pretty much everywhere in northern NH and VT. Enjoy!

The Rt 2 area west of Lyndonville looks a bit lonely on your map. Some ideas:

1) Shadow Lake, Concord. There's a great viewpoint from Shadow Lake Road, about a 5 minute drive from Rt 2.
2) Kirby Mountain Road, north of Rt 2. Some really nice long views to the west overlooking farms and mountains. A good late afternoon photo spot (bring a long lens).

Also, the Craftsbury/Albany/Greensboro area is really nice, although I can't vouch for the color there this year as I didn't make it there. I can't remember which roads are best, but my rule of thumb is that if it says "____ Hill Road", take it.

Thanks everyone! Keep those suggestions coming.

I was leaning at not going up to VT this year and keeping local in MA but the posts these past few days have helped change my mind.

Now to finalize a route...

faxmachineanthem wrote:The area west of Lyndonville looks a bit lonely on your map...

Also, the Craftsbury/Albany/Greensboro area is really nice, although I can't vouch for the color there this year as I didn't make it there. I can't remember which roads are best, but my rule of thumb is that if it says "____ Hill Road", take it.

My NEK West route from the Great Drives sticky covers a lot of that area west of Lyndonville that is missing from Oren's map. If I had more time, I would be out there!

The leaves are hanging on very well around here. Unless we get high winds the color should be good in the NEK. Colors are strong In Waitsfield but not quite peak yet. Anywhere north of Route US 4 and east of route 116 should good.

Thanks From_the-NEK and PWT54

So I'm leaning toward NEK's East route: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2008&p=16832&hilit= ... ake#p16832

Color seem good in this location for tomorrow (10/1)? I know there is a good deal of altitude change so I should get something decent...

Roads pretty decent? I finally traded in my '02 Civic but am a bit hesitant to have rocks fly up and injure my 1 month old Accord.

It's about 2hr 45 minutes to Moose Reservoir. Any thoughts on a sunrise spot around there?

Pretty much all of the routes I've posted follow primarily gravel roads. However, other than a few (which I provide alternate routes for), they are all easily passable in a sedan. Just don't drive too fast and you shouldn't have to worry about rocks

If you are looking for a good sunrise spot off of I-93 near Moore Dam Reservoir follow these directions:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/44.3294 ... m2!4m1!3e0

This will take you to the top of a hill near the Waterford/Concord border. I want to get you up on the hills since it is very likely to be foggy down in the valley at sunrise. Additionally, there are no roads very close to the reservoir other than Route 18 and I-93 right near the dam.

From this location on the hill there is a decent view to the east where the sun should be rising over the left shoulder of Mt Washington (assuming it isn't overcast) around 6:30AM. There are also nice rows of trees in the fields and a few small ponds here that should make for good photo opportunities even if it is cloudy or foggy.

To get back to civilization, back tracking to the interstate is the easiest approach.

Thanks again From_the-NEK!

I'll let you know what I find