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The Best Foliage Drives in New England

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A good place to begin is the Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich. The unsurpassed collections of Americana housed here on 100 landscaped acres set the tone for the journey ahead. Continuing east, you pass so many signs for antiques and art galleries that you may suspect every resident sells things out of his or her garage. Around the halfway point, in Yarmouth Port, stop at the Edward Gorey House to browse the original artwork and personal effects of its famous and prolific namesake, whose darkly humorous illustrations are an antidote to everything sentimental.

Cape Cod Bay is largely invisible from the road except in glimpses across the occasional salt marsh, but if you take nearly any left-hand turn, you'll find a beach. The best beaches are in the town of Dennis. For excellent panoramic views of the bay's ever-changing light, visit Dennis's Scargo Hill Observatory, a small stone observation platform built in 1902 on the area's highest point of land (106 feet).

The penultimate town, Brewster, tempts weary travelers with numerous attractive bed-and-breakfasts, many of which were 19th-century sea captains' homes. Before you know it, the arching boughs over the winding blacktop yield to bustling Orleans, where Old King's Highway ends.

Maine: Land of Moose and Rivers

Calling the Old Canada Road (Route 201) a scenic byway does a small injustice to this 78-mile drive between Solon and Sandy Bay Township, along the Canadian border. It's not just scenic (think moose) but also grandly historic. Benedict Arnold led troops through this wilderness on his spectacularly ill-fated mission to sack Quebec in 1775. A more lasting trail was blazed in the 19th century by Maine farmers who discovered a better market for livestock and produce in Canada than on their own coast.

The trip north today remains an excursion from the pastoral into the pine forests. You start out flanked by rolling farmland, then climb steadily into commercial timberland, the lair of moose. Logging trucks soon share the winding road with old school buses that ferry white-water enthusiasts to some of the most popular rafting in the East. Head with Raft Maine to The Forks (named after a river juncture) to get splendidly soaked on the Kennebec or Dead Rivers.

One don't-miss detour from The Forks is the hike to 90-foot Moxie Falls, one of Maine's highest cascades. It's just over a mile from the trailhead, which is two miles east of the river on Lake Moxie Road.

Continue your drive past Parlin Pond and the Appalachian Trail to the town of Jackman ("Last Gas in the United States"), one of Maine's famed fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling outposts. Just south of town is Attean Lake, where you can find the landing phone to call for a shuttle to the Attean Lake Lodge, a family-friendly resort on a densely forested island.

Moose Point Tavern, set on aptly named Big Wood Lake at what was once Henderson's Sporting Camps, makes for a fitting road trip finale. Enjoy the lake view as you relax with a pint of local lager and a plate of marvelously unfussy food, all the while plotting detours for the trip home.