New England Fall Foliage

Chasing Fall Colors in New England

I’m very excited to talk about this trip as it had been a bucket list item for a LONG time. This is going to be pretty long but I did everyone a favor and broke down my itinerary day by day below if you’re just interested in skimming. (There’s also a video on my YouTube channel as well if you’re interested in that)

I have always loved fall. There’s just something magical about the changing of the leaves, the cooler weather, and finally being able to wear all the cute outfits that just made me feel alive. I didn’t fully realize how much I appreciated the change in weather until I moved to Florida. Sure, not having to deal with snow and scraping off my windshield in the morning is nice, but there’s just something really odd about it ALWAYS feeling like summer. For someone who grew up knowing all four seasons, it is a little unsettling at times. 

But enough about fall. Let’s talk about how I figured out my itinerary. I’d love to tell you that I did a ton of research and came up with the one and only best itinerary possible, but that would be a huge lie. In truth, there’s soooo much to do in New England and trying to fit it all in just 7 days would be impossible. I mean, I GUESS you could do it, but it would feel like you were sprinting from state to state just to keep up. In my opinion, that’s not what fall is about. It’s the time of year to sit back and relax. Enjoy the last months we have before snow hits and all motivation is thrown out the window to do anything.

So what really happened? It came down to where I could find hotels for decent prices at the last second. I really started putting this idea together only a couple months before I was planning on leaving. If you can help it, don’t do that. Plan this trip well in advance as I realized quickly that finding available rental cars, hotels, and cheap flights wasn’t going to be easy. But once I had the idea in my head that I was going to New England I knew I had to make it happen. So after two weeks of trying to piece together flights, a rental car, routes and most importantly hotels…I FINALLY had my itinerary finalized and good to go.

Days 1 & 2: Acadia National Park

A couple years ago I decided I was going to visit all the National Parks so my biggest non-negotiable when planning my itinerary was making sure I made it over to Acadia National Park. Yes, this added a LOT of driving into my first day but I didn’t care. It was about 4.5 hours to get to Bar Harbor from Boston’s airport but it was a very scenic drive. I drove straight to the hotel to check in and drop my stuff off (this was my favorite hotel the entire trip by the way) and immediately left to head into the park. I went to Sand Beach and walked around for a little while before heading back to Bar Harbor for dinner. I stopped at Side Street Cafe and had their lobster mac-n-cheese (highly recommend!!) and a slice of blueberry pie to go.

I woke up bright and early the next morning to head back into Acadia and hike Beehive Trail! This trail is one of the most popular hikes to do in the park but it is not for the faint of heart. It may seem innocent enough at only 1.5 miles but there’s a good chunk of the trail where you’re climbing rungs on the side of the mountain. If you’re scared of heights, maybe give this one a pass. After I completed the hike I continued to explore some smaller trails nearby and walked along the main road. At this point there were buses everywhere dropping of tons and tons of people. I decided to head out and go check out the gift shop at the visitor’s center and head back to Bar Harbor for lunch. Before leaving for this trip I told myself I wouldn’t eat anything that still had eyes (so creepy) but my dad talked me into getting a full lobster at Geddy’s and it actually was pretty delicious!

I finished off the day by heading out to the Bar Island Land Bridge. This “bridge” is only accessible at low tide and you’re able to walk across and do the short trail across the way at Bar Island. Plenty of families were out with children checking out the tide pools and exploring areas you really only get access to twice a day. Check the tide charts for this as you do not want to get stranded out on the island but there are signs everywhere with warnings so you shouldn’t be caught off guard. The hike itself was easy and scenic but don’t expect any great views at the end. I definitely recommend checking it out but if you’re actually looking for a true hike, stick to the Acadia area!

Day 3: Conway, NH

I had another decently long drive to start the day off with so I got up bright and early to grab breakfast from the hotel and set off. It rained for most of the drive and I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t be able to do any hiking but I got lucky and it let up as soon as I made it to Conway! I drove straight past my hotel to not waste any time and went into Crawford Notch State Park. I had done my research the night before and saw that Mount Willard trailhead was the furthest from my hotel so I headed straight there. This trail was highly recommended as a fall hike and I’m definitely happy I did it! It’s only 3 miles roundtrip but that means you’re climbing up for most of the 1.5 miles out to the summit. Most of the trail was rock and since it had rained all morning there were some pretty slick spots! Keep your eyes on the trail and take it slow and you’ll be just fine though. The views from the summit are definitely worth the short hike! You could even have a small picnic if you wanted because there was plenty of room to spread out at the top.

After making it back to my car, I hopped back on the road heading towards the hotel. My next stop was Arethusa Falls trail. I was able to snag a spot close to the trailhead and started making my way through the woods. I ended up not finishing this trail for a couple different reasons… 1) the trail wasn’t marked very well and I had to keep stopping to look around and see if I could spot the next marker and 2) I had a really weird odd feeling to turn around and go back to my car after only making it half a mile in. I tried to ignore it and keep going for a bit but it became overwhelming so I did end up turning around and calling it. This was the only time during this trip that I got that feeling so I’m not really sure what to make of it. Apparently the trail is well known and has great reviews on AllTrails so I’m honestly not sure what to make of my experience.

Day 4: Lincoln, NH

The only item I had on the agenda this day was to drive the Kancamagus Highway from Conway to Lincoln and try my best to find those crazy bright fall leaves I had seen all over social media. I didn’t have my hopes up since I had already come to terms with the fact that I was here past peek…but I got lucky! I ended up finding one tree that had these beautiful neon orange leaves (as seen above)! Besides that I did get to check out the Albany Covered Bridge, Rocky Gorge Scenic Area, Sabbaday Falls, and a couple different overlooks towards the end of the highway.

Driving the highway only took a couple hours so I decided to head over to the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tram. This was one of the coolest things I did during the week! I’m an absolute sucker for gondola rides/aerial trams and I don’t know why so don’t ask. The absolute tragedy for the day too was that I had bought gloves just that morning and forgot them in the car. It wasn’t too cold at the bottom but by the time I had made it to the top it was about 27 degrees Fahrenheit and there was snow falling from the trees!! I couldn’t feel my fingers or my face while I was recording and the wind was so intense but the views were stunning (see below!).

After I spent about an hour meandering around and then warming myself back up inside, I headed back to my car and drove a couple minutes away to the parking lot for Artists Bluff. Artists Bluff is a very popular short hike – only about 1.5 miles roundtrip – and I highly recommend it! The beginning of the trail starts off innocent enough but soon you’re scrambling rocks up what feels like a never-ending incline. You finally make it to the summit and get to enjoy some amazing views…but don’t be fooled! You’re not quite done climbing and there’s still a good chunk of the hike left after you leave the bluff and continue on. Overall though it is a very doable hike and there were plenty of people out there with children.

Day 5: Heading to Stowe, VT

The title of this section is a little deceiving because I actually squeezed another hike in near Lincoln before driving over to Stowe. This hike is a little different as they require you to buy a timeslot and you do have to check in and have someone scan your ticket before you’re allowed in. I believe each adult ticket is $18 which definitely is a bit pricey for a 2 mile hike but the employees were explaining to us that all the money they make from admissions is used for maintenance of the boardwalk. Apparently the entire thing gets taken down at the end of every season and rebuilt at the beginning of the next which is pretty impressive to imagine. I picked the earliest timeslot available which was 9am when they opened and I was shocked at the amount of people waiting in line with me. Overall the hike is very pretty but would probably be more impressive after the area gets some good rain. The waterfalls were pretty but they weren’t anything like what I had seen in the photos while planning the trip. They do have a little gift shop at the visitor’s center that I recommend checking out because I found the cutest fleece and there were plenty of other gift options as well.

Unfortunately, the rest of my day didn’t quite go as well as everything leading up to this point. I decided to go a little out of my way and check out this restaurant that had raving reviews and decided that the 1 hour wait they had quoted me when checking in was worth it. This 1 hour turned into over 2 hours and the food and coffee I got was okay but definitely not worth wasting that much time just hanging around. I don’t want to namedrop the place because honestly with all their good reviews I may have just caught them on a really busy day. But after that I drove a couple hours over to Stowe and was greeted with an absolute mad house of people.

Seriously, I can’t even describe to you the amount of people that were in Stowe. If you’ve never been to the area before, Stowe is a small town that probably doesn’t see much action outside of their fall tourism. It feels like it would be a very cute quaint area but instead I felt like I was in Disney. I drove through the town and headed straight for the trailhead for Sterling Pond trail. Word of caution here: the road just past the Mountain Resort is a tight, winding, practically one-lane road that continues on for miles. Most of the trailheads are located on this road so please please please make sure you’re cautious and know how to drive on roads like this. The amount of people I encountered that were trying to speed down this road despite all the blind spots and the amount of families that were letting their children run around without a care in the world was MIND-BOGGLING. It wasn’t even relaxing to be in this area because at any moment I thought I was going to witness some horrible accident. Despite all the holdups, I was eventually able to find a parking spot and hike the trail, but unfortunately the trail was also a letdown. If you haven’t noticed the pattern so far, I love a good overlook. I love being able to see for miles and look down at the surrounding area and just take everything in. That is not what was at the end of Sterling Pond. Listen, I don’t know what I was expecting given the name, but you hike 1 mile straight up for what feels like an eternity just to be thrown out right next to the pond. No fancy overlooks. No crazy views. Just a pond. I was so annoyed at this point with everything that I just packed my stuff up and went to the hotel for the night.

Day 6: Stowe, VT

My final full day of this trip was spent in Stowe. I was torn between driving the toll road up to the trailhead or taking the famous gondola up to the top. I’ll be honest, I didn’t do too much research when I discovered there was a toll road I was able to drive so what happened after was completely my fault. I decided to be different and take the toll road thinking it was taking me to the same spot the gondola drops you off at (I was wrong). I drive this narrow one lane road up to the top and am deposited in a small parking lot thats unpaved with just a couple portable toilets and a small building. Turns out the only thing at the top was a trailhead and I could actually hike over to where the gondola takes visitors but it would have been a LONG hike. I wasn’t mentally prepared for that so I did do a couple miles of the hike before turning around and going back. The views were pretty nice and I overheard some other people pointing out how you could see Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains way out in the distance. But since I wasn’t mentally prepared for any kind of long hikes, I did ultimately head back to the car and drive back down just to head straight to the gondola and take that too.

So for the sake of being completely transparent, I spent A LOT of money taking the toll road AND the gondola. The toll road was almost $50 (insane btw) and the gondola was another $65. Why do these things cost so much?? Tourism. They can get away with it because people keep coming back and paying for it. Was the toll road worth it? Sure, I guess. If you really want to do the super long hike and want to start in a different area than others, then sure go for it. The gondola? Listen, I said earlier in this blog that I love gondolas, and I do…but $65??? Ugh. It was pretty don’t get me wrong, but the top just felt like another tourist trap. I had lunch at the restaurant which was expensive and the food was just alright. There really wasn’t much else to do at the top and the amount of people walking around was too much. The tram I took earlier in the week was much cheaper and honestly a lot more worth it in my opinion.

All in all, the trip was absolutely amazing. I’m so happy I was finally able to check out New England in the fall and now I have a better idea of what I will be doing different for future trips. First big thing I would change and recommend to anyone looking for ideas is to limit Stowe to one day. It was pretty and I definitely think it’s worth tacking onto the itinerary, but be prepared for the amount of people and make it a quick stop and move on. I highly recommend checking out New Hampshire! Conway and Lincoln were absolutely gorgeous areas and didn’t feel like they were just tourist traps. I also really enjoyed Acadia so I found all the extra driving to be worth it. However, if hitting all the National Parks are not that big of a deal to you, you could probably save this destination for a trip of its own.