For the warm days and cool nights minus the overbearing heat of summer, fall is many a person’s favorite season. Another reason is the colorful leaves. Love of fall colors has even led to a term for tourists out to see them: “leaf peepers.” So what are the best national parks for seeing fall colors? Let’s take a peep!
Yosemite, California
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The entire Sierra Nevada is beautiful in the fall, but most of it is only accessible via long hikes. Yosemite isn’t like that. Until snowfall closes Tioga Pass for the season, you can alternate between the Valley and the high country for all the color you can take!
Great Basin, Nevada
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This is a “sky island” amid an ocean of sagebrush. When the aspens here turn, they’re a stark contrast with the desert all around. A bonus is that this remote park doesn’t attract the leaf-watching crowds that come to some of the other places on this list.
Zion, Utah
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Zion has cottonwoods along its waterways and aspens at higher elevations. Both turn a brilliant gold in the fall, eccentuating the sandstone scenery all aound them.
Capitol Reef, Utah
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Capitol Reef is mostly raw rock with sparse desert vegetation. Along the Fremont River, though, there’s a riparian corridor supporting cottonwood trees. From late September into mid-October, this corridor becomes a ribbon of gold.
Glacier, Montana
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The forests here are mostly of evergreen trees, but there are enough stands of aspens to make colorful patches on the mountainsides. The best colors, though, are along big lakes like St. Mary Lake, where cottonwoods glosten against a deep blue backdrop.
Grand Teton, Wyoming
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It’s the same story here as it is in the other mountainous parks of the west: aspens in the highlands and cottonwoods in the valleys. Fall comes early at the elevations here, so if you wait until October, you’ll miss the best of the colors.
Rocky Mountain, Colorado
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The aspens on the mountainsides here will keep their color into October most years, even at higher elevations. Don’t be surprised to see fresh snow mixed with brilliant golds here since the winter snows usually start in September here.
Guadalupe Mountains, Texas
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Most of Texas is not very exciting if you enjoy fall colors, but McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupes is a major exception. There, you can find maples and other deciduous trees that yield reds, golds, and oranges in the fall.
Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina-Tennessee
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In size and grandeur, most mountains in the East pale before those in the West, but one way the East beats the West is in fall colors, where there is simply much more variety. In the Smokies, intense colors can last well into November due to their southerly location.
Shenandoah, Virginia
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From late September into early November, some of the most dazzling color displays in the country are easy to see from 105-mile Skyline Drive. Fall weekends can get really busy here, but the great weather and the scenic beauty are worth it.
New River Gorge, West Virginia
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One of our newest national parks, New River Gorge has some of the best whitewater rafting in the country. Fall is an especially nice time to enjoy it with stunning colors and warm days.
Acadia, Maine
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New England is, according to most leaf aficionados, the best part of the country for fall colors. Acadia is the only national park in New England, and although fall is the rainy season here, that doesn’t put a damper on the beautiful colors.
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