New England in the Fall

We want to visit New England this fall to see all the colors when the leaves turn. Can anyone share any experiences from that area? Any info on specific campgrounds or best areas to view and visit. We will have 3 - 4 weeks to spend there. We will be traveling from Florida so any info along the way would be appreciated. Also, I am thinking about going maybe the last week of September thru 3rd week of October. Does this time frame sound good to catch the colors?

Check a post on 2/20/02 under the subject: New Trailmanor Owners, written by F. J. and Ellen, concerning Sweet Water Forest in Brewster.
Also, believe it or not, Marthas Vineyard has a campground called Marthas Vineyard Family Campground which sounds interesting according to Woodalls. As you know, MV is an island and it requires a ferry ride to get there which you'll be talking about for years! Hope your TM is not brand new.
I have not stayed at either one.
Dick_B

I forgot to mention Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia which is on the way and worth a couple of days if you can spare them.
Dick_B

The north east is awesome during the time you plan to be there. You will have missed the peak folage by mid Oct in some places but it appears you should hit it right.

[Bill]

A quick Google search for the search phrase
"New England" "fall foliage" peak map
yielded a large number of useful hits. I liked
http://www.7almanac.com/articles/fall.html and
http://www.weatherman.com/foliage.htm and
http://www.visitnewengland.com/curre...nies_list.html

There are dozens of others that are useful, and if you add "campground" to the search phrase, you ought to get some help there.

You will want to work your way north-to-south, of course. Perhaps start in the White Mountains of New Hampshire or the Green Mountains of Vermont (Burlington, on Lake Champlain, is a beautiful town), and work down into the Berkshires in Mass. Or choose a route that comes down through western Maine and over to the coast at, say, Bar Harbor, and down the coast from there. Almost anything is beautiful.

Warning - the hotels are already fully booked for leaf-peeping season, and the campgrounds can't be far behind. Do your homework, and make your reservations soon. And make sure you have plenty of propane - the nights will be cold.

Enjoy!

Bill

Another great campground in Maine is Acres of Wildlife, located in Steep Falls. You might consider it.

http://www.acresofwildlife.com/

[RickNewcomb]

Check out New England Camper's webpage. He has many reviews of campgrounds in New England.

http://members.aol.com/~newenglandcamper/camping.html

Also, check out Family Camping in New England webapge at:

http://users.rcn.com/buddha/

I would echo Bill's recommendation about starting north and working your way south.

The Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountians of New Hampshire, and western Maine will peak about the same time. Western Massachusetts will peak shortly after that. But I would highly recommended the White Mountains. A nice leaf peeping route for the White Mountains is to start in Franconia Notch to Route 302 east, thru Crawford Notch, to Bartlett, thru Bear Notch via Bear Notch Rd. and west on Rte 112 the Kancamagus Highway. The Lake Winnipesauke region of NH is also very nice.

I just drove thru Lost River Valley Campground in Woodstock, NH last weekend and it looked very nice. I will be staying there next week. Their webpage is at:
http://www.lostriver.com/

In the Twin Mountain area, Beech Hill Campground is nice. Their webage is at:
http://www.beechhill.com/

In the Lake Winnipesauke region, I like Meredith Woods. Their webpage is at:
http://www.meredithwoods.com/

As Bill already stated, it can get very cold here in the fall. I usually carry a small electric heater as back up to the propane heater. It could be a mighty cold night if your heater should fail.

My thanks to all of you who have responded with all of the info. Has anyone been into Canada up in that area?
Is it worth trying to plan that into a New England trip?

After looking through this forum, I was just curious to know what types of occupations are represented. It sounds like some folks have a lot of time to travel.
In regards to myself, I produce and direct corporate video for a manufacturing company here in Jacksonville, Florida. I also freelance outside of my regular job.

[kempert]

I've never been to Canada in the Fall but it is beautiful in the Summer.  It is also less expensive.  When you see a price with CAN behind it, you can compare it to US dollars by multiplying it by .65 (if the exchange hasn't changed much in the last 4 months.

I'm a retired high school teacher.  I still work part time to help out the local school system.  I coach a high school girls' cross country team in the fall and help officiate track & field meets in the winter and spring.

Kempart, interesting, we were talking about that at work today in reference to buying new cars.......see, if ya go to Canada, it's the same price as here, but doesn't take in to factor the exchange rate.....we were talking about how if an American buys a Dodge up in Canada, Dodge drops the warrenty! (Yup, they do according to our General Manager that used to be in that business)..........any thoughts?

Happytrails.......