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Travel|7 Beautiful Places for Fall Foliage That Aren’t in New England
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/travel/fall-leaves-autumn-foliage-michigan-oregon.html
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As autumn sweeps in, where will you go to get your fix of fiery golds and reds? This could be the year to try Michigan or Oregon instead of Massachusetts.
Sept. 17, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET
Every fall, visitors seeking out fall colors throng to hot spots like the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Berkshires in Massachusetts.
But North America is vast and rich in forests, so why does New England get so much love?
According to Prof. William Keeton, a forest ecosystem scientist at the University of Vermont, the region’s diverse array of trees — including beech, birch, maple and oak — produces a wide variety of colors when the leaves begin to change. Add to this, Dr. Keeton said, a mix of elevations, as well as slopes that face in different directions, producing climate variation, and you have a wide range of colors and stages of revealing.
OK, sure, New England is beautiful, but stunning autumn colors don’t belong to any one region: Picture the deep orange dogwood trees of the Pacific Northwest, the golden shimmer of the aspens in Colorado and the rusty red of swamp chestnut oak in West Virginia. Here are seven places beyond New England where you can get an eyeful.
West Virginia
New River Gorge National Park
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The New River Gorge National Park & Preserve in southern West Virginia offers more than 70,000 acres of public lands that burst into shades of red, orange and yellow during its peak autumn foliage, between mid-October and early November.
Fayetteville, a small town just outside the park, offers plenty of dining and lodging and a downtown rich in Civil War history, where walking tours explore local historical sites. If you’re up for an adventure, try white-water rafting on the nearby Gauley River or gawk at colorful mountain ridges from about 200 feet in the air while zooming down a zip line.
