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Where should you actually drive to see fall colors this year?
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items Most of you reading this are in Naperville, Provo, Charlotte, Olathe, Albany, and Bethlehem, not in a postcard New England town, so I went looking for the fall drive that is actually within reach of where you already live. There is a good one near al...
Map
This is the drive people mean when they say New England in October, and for once the hype held up for me. It is thirty four miles with no gas stations and no cell service, which stressed me out the first time and then became my favorite part of it. G...
Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire
If you are anywhere near Albany this is the easiest good decision on the list, about an hour north. You drive almost the whole way up, so the payoff is enormous for how little walking anyone has to do, which matters when I have both kids. It closes f...
Prospect Mountain Highway, Lake George, New York
Charlotte to this stretch of the Parkway is about two hours and it is the trip I would do first if I lived there. The speed limit is 45 the entire way, which sounds annoying until you understand that is the whole point of the road. Peak color moves d...
Linn Cove Viaduct, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
About ninety minutes from Denver and the aspens turn a gold that does not look real in photos, which is annoying because I took two hundred of them. The trail from the parking area is flat enough that my youngest walked it without being carried. The ...
Kenosha Pass, Colorado
If you are in Provo this is basically in your backyard, and I was genuinely surprised how few people outside Utah know about it. The maples here turn a red you simply do not get in the rest of the Rockies. The road is narrow with real drop offs and n...
Alpine Loop Scenic Byway, Utah
For anyone in the Chicago suburbs this is ninety minutes away and it is the closest thing to a canyon that Illinois has, which I say with love. Getting the canyons and the color in the same trip is what makes it worth the drive. It is genuinely crowd...
Starved Rock State Park, Illinois
About an hour from Bethlehem, and this is the one I picked for people whose kids get bored of scenery in ten minutes, because the train ride through the gorge is the part mine still bring up. The town itself is walkable afterward. Tickets for peak Oc...
Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
This is the one I am asking you to trust me on. There are almost no big trees, so it is not fall color the way you picture it, it is miles of tallgrass prairie turning copper and gold with nearly nobody else out there. From Olathe it is about two hou...
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Flint Hills, Kansas
Thirty minutes from Kansas City and the overlook above the Missouri River is a genuinely good view for how little effort it costs you. We do the paved loop and then get pie in Weston afterward, which is honestly half the reason we go. The overlook pl...
Weston Bend State Park, Missouri
This is the longest haul on my list but it is the one I would give a whole weekend to. Having water on both sides of the peninsula means the color reflects and you get twice as much of it. Everything books solid on October weekends and the rates roug...
Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin
Mornings at elevation are thirty degrees colder than the parking lot at noon, which I learned while shivering at Kenosha Pass in a hoodie. This squishes into its own pocket so it lives in my trunk permanently and I never have to remember it. It is no...
Amazon Essentials Packable Puffer Jacket
I fill this with coffee before we leave at five in the morning and it is still genuinely hot at the overlook three hours later. The handle matters far more than I expected when you are also holding a kid's hand across a parking lot. It does not fit i...
Stanley Quencher 40 oz Tumbler
Every good fall drive on this list has a long stretch with no food, so we pack lunch now instead of hoping. Having it on my back rather than in my hand is what made it work once we started walking. It keeps things cold about six hours in my experienc...
SPARTER Insulated Backpack Cooler
Half of these drives have no service, so I download the map before we leave, and this keeps it in my eyeline instead of face down in my lap. The magnet holds through switchbacks, which surprised me for the price. It blocks one air vent, which I did n...
WixGear Magnetic Vent Car Phone Mount
This folds down to about the size of a sandwich and lives in my glovebox for the times we decide to walk further than we planned, which is most times. Snacks, water, and a spare layer for two kids fit fine. The straps are thin and start digging into ...
Gonex Packable Lightweight Daypack