The Best Fall Road Trips

I love the idea of road trips.  Packing everything into the car and taking off allows you to experience so much more of the country than a quick airplane flight.  Even when the road is littered with, well, ugliness, it kind of give you a new appreciation for the beauty in things when it is there.

This list of road trips is more of a bucket list than from experience.  It’s all the trips I would like to take…eventually.

1. Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  Apparently in about the 3rd week of October the trees are a color that will leave you speechless.  Plus, with the water right there, the reflection adds to the whole experience.  Taking the drive from Washington D.C. to Harpers Ferry is supposed to give you the most bang for your buck.   Plus, once you are there, you might as check out Bolivar Heights, an old civil war battlefield.
2. Twain’s Great River Road.  Mark Twain  made this adventure iconic and with good reason, the trip down the Mississippi to Hannibal, MO will provide a wall of color in the fall.  It’s a chance to see what inspired one of America’s greatest story tellers.  {Better re-read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer one more time before you go.}  In Hannibal, you can visit Twain’s childhood home.
3. Coastal Maine.  Start in Portland and make your way up Route 1.  You’ll get to see the trees changing, the lighthouses, and maybe stop off at Cape Elizabeth for a FRESH lobster dinner.
4. Vermont.  Who doesn’t want to be able to say, “Oh, you should see Vermont in the fall.”  It is legendary for a reason.  It boasts some of the most scenic fall foliage in the country.  The Green Mountain and Mad River Byways are supposed to be pretty spectacular.  Along the way, you can stop off at Cold Hollow Cider Mill and do some cider tasting.  It doesn’t get more fall than that.
5. Lake Placid, NY.  Getting to experience the color in the Adirondacks {the largest wilderness region in the East U.S.} in the fall would not be the worst thing in the world.  The park is 6 million acres, so there is no shortage of scenic opportunities.  If you time it right, you can hit the Flaming Leaves Festival in Whiteface Mountain.
6. The Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg, TN.  So, I have to admit, on our St. Jude or Bust trip two summers ago, I had a change to see the foliage in the Smokey Mountains when is was green.  Even with just shades of green, it was spectacular.  I can only imagine what it would look like in the fall.  If you need a little break from the car, Cades Cove is a national park that offers hiking, tours of 19th century homesteads and horseback riding–all while your enveloped in the fall colors.
7. Gunnison to Crested Butte, Colorado.  The East coast can’t get all of the fall road trip love.  This trip boasts the largest aspen groves in the country.  Your trip will end at Black Canyon National Park in Gunnison.  The canyons alone would be worth the trip.
8. Ricketts Glen State Park, Northeast Pennsylvania.  If you are willing to travel about 3 miles on foot, the park boasts 22 waterfalls.  Most of the trees are over 200 years old, so the trees will be something to write home about {if people actually still wrote home, that is.}
9. Eastern Sierras, CA.  If you start at Coleville and head to Lundy Lake, then continue on to June Lane Loop and Mono Lake.  Finally head through Mammoth Lakes and end in Rock Creek Canyon.  The whole trip will offer foliage from aspens, willows and cottonwoods.  If the lakes aren’t enough, in the fall, you’ll even get to see snow capped mountain peeks.  It will be a “bouquet of color.”  If you don’t mind a bit of a detour, you can stop at Bodie.  It’s the largest preserved ghost town in the West.
10. The Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, Taos, New Mexico.  Not only will the drive loop you from Taos through Eagle Next and Angel Fire, then back to Taos again, it will also offer tons of fall foliage and wildlife {elk, black bears, eagles}.  If you want to get out and stretch your legs, plan on a stop in Elizabethtown.  It’s an old gold mining Ghost Town.

Have any of YOU taken this trips?  Is it worth putting them on my bucket list?

~Mavis