Nothing says autumn like the vivid colors in New England. After living in Southern California and Texas for so long, I wanted to remember what real autumn looks like (I lived in MA for 8 years when I was younger, so I knew what I was looking for).

We planned the trip for the second weekend of October, figuring that the New England area is small enough we could drive to whichever area was peaking while we were there, although we were hoping we timed it right to get the White Mountains National Forest in all its autumn splendor. We also saved a few days for Acadia National Park in Maine, which I will add in my next post.

It turned out that we visited the White Mountains at the perfect time for fall foliage. The weather was a bit damp our first day, but I put some rain gear on my camera and carried on. The even lighting also worked out nicely for all the rivers and waterfalls we found on day 1.

The sugar maples were the best.

After our rainy drive through White Mountains, we actually drove over to Stowe, VT and stayed at a nice B&B for the night. There were some lovely photo ops in Stowe as well, but since they aren’t in the White Mountains park I’ll just post a couple at the end.

Anyway, the next morning we caught the sunrise in Stowe then enjoyed breakfast at the B&B before driving back through the White Mountains, this time visiting the northern route.

Beautiful birch trees amongst the autumn color.

And finally a view of Mt. Washington. This was our second trip to the area (the first was on our road trip in 2009) and both times we considered driving up the mountain and both times we opted out. On our road trip it was more of a financial consideration; for this trip we thought we’d prefer to take photos of Mt. Washington rather than from Mt. Washington. Also, my parents drove me up Mt. Washington when I lived in MA and we got the bumper sticker and everything.

Perhaps we’ll drive up it next time we visit — at least there’s always more things to do!

And finally, a few photos from Stowe, VT: