Issues → September/October 2007 → Feature Stories →

Beauty and the Best of Autumn in New England

15 great things to do, places to go in this amazing season

by Katrina A. Yeager

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Capture fall in a pottery or bronze leaf, a candied apple, a Cider Day brew. Take a drive, take a hike, or take a balloon ride. Paddle a canoe or kayak. Pick a pumpkin. It's autumn in New England.

1. Home

Capture fall color forever with a Stillwood Pottery piece. Kassie Hennessey shapes and glazes terra-cotta clay to look like oversize leaves. Each one is beautiful as a tabletop decoration -- with or without a tea light candle -- or as a soap dish or change tray. Prices $8.50-$85. Made in Orono, Maine. 207-947-3765; stillwoodpottery.com

2. Soundtrack

If I had the grace of autumn / then I'd know just what to do / I'd hold on 'til the time was right / and let go with brilliant hues. -- "Autumn," from the album The Harvest by Colrain, Massachusetts-based singer/songwriter Erica Wheeler

3. Nibble on This

Yum -- candy apples at Jaswell's Farm (401-231-9043; jaswellsfarm.com) in Smithfield, Rhode Island. It's right in the heart of "apple country" and has made these crunchy delights a specialty. Eight choices, including traditional cherry-red candy-coated, caramel fruits, and blue raspberry candy-coated.

4. When You're Thirsty

Try the season's apple cider -- celebrate Cider Day in western Massachusetts' Franklin County (413-773-5463; ciderday.org). Or, look for fall ales, on tap or bottled. Two popular brews made in New England are Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale (Maine) and Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (New Hampshire).

5. Bike

Vermont's four-mile River Road is a don't-miss. This dirt byway parallels the Ottauquechee River between Woodstock and Quechee -- perfect for an afternoon outing. Often, you're so close to the water it feels as if you're on a boat. See fish rising and swallows swooping. Look for the old cemetery, the covered bridge, and the turn-off to a farm where you'll find cheese and maple syrup made on site.

6. Style

Jewelry maker Michael Michaud of Fairfield, Connecticut, has designed a collection called Falling Leaves, featuring maple, oak, and hawthorn. Each piece is molded from an original leaf found in nature and then cast in bronze. Prices $40-$125. To find a local gallery or retailer, call 800-295-6784; fourseasonsdesigngroup.com

7. It's Not Just About the Leaves

Fall is also harvest time -- that time of year when we visit New England's apple orchards, pumpkin patches, and corn mazes. Maybe best of all are the county and state fairs that celebrate the season's bounty. This year, check out the 189th Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, Massachusetts (888-781-3247, 978-887-5000; topsfieldfair.org). America's oldest continually operating agricultural fair showcases New England's largest apiary exhibition, a fall flower show, draft horses, plenty of farm animals, food, arts and crafts, and nationally known entertainment. Don't miss the giant pumpkin weigh-in, where growers try to beat the world record (1,502 pounds).

8. From the Air

That's right... No one ever said the only way to see color was from eye level. Get the birds' perspective: Go hot-air ballooning, skydiving, paragliding, or flying. In western Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley, climb into a wicker gondola with Paul Sena (413-238-5514; worthingtonballooning.com), or jump from an airplane with Dave Strickland (800-444-5867, 413-586-1889; airborne-adventures.com).

9. Behind the Wheel

Use Bethel, Maine, as your starting and ending point. Head west on Route 2, then turn south on Route 113 at Gilead. The road parallels the Wild River and Evans Brook here, and trees form a leafy canopy overhead. The road climbs steeply into Evans Notch; on the descent you'll pass a grove of birches and wind through meadows. Then pick up Route 5 in Fryeburg and return to Bethel. Heaven!

10. Canoe/Kayak

For foliage views times two, put your canoe or kayak in at the state-owned boat access on Powers Lake in East Lyme, Connecticut. It's close to major population centers but offers one big surprise: This 152-acre lake is undeveloped except for a Yale University retreat center. The untouched shoreline is edged by a diversity of woodland flora, which means a wide variety of colors.

11. Yankee''s guide to Fall Color

12. Destination

Visit Harrisville, New Hampshire's town center -- a classic New England mill village and a National Historic Landmark. Tidy red-brick buildings and a granite mill are reflected in a pond and the millstream that once powered a woolens manufacturer. The buildings are fully restored to their 19th-century splendor, thanks to a savvy nonprofit group that leases them to various businesses, including the internationally known Harrisville Designs (800-338-9415, 603-827-3333; harrisville.com), maker of looms and yarns. The company's store offers a big assortment of textile products, clothing, and books.

13. Where to Find the Color

A biodiverse forest is what we think of first for the most dramatic displays, but it's not just the treetops that capture the color. Look also for low-lying blueberry bush barrens, streams where leaves have caught on the bottom, and gardens with fall-blooming flowers such as chrysanthemums. Best advice: Buy a DeLorme map and explore secondary roads.

14. Crowning Achievement

The United States National Champion sugar maple grows in Lyme, Connecticut. According to the National Register of Big Trees, this giant beauty stands 115 feet high, measures 223 inches around, and spreads 89 feet.

15. Hike

You'll find the biggest bang for your buck on Middle Sugarloaf, one of three peaks atop a ridge, in New Hampshire's White Mountains. A 2.8-mile round-trip hike takes you from a riverbed to an open, ledgy summit with clumps of spruce, sumac, birch, blueberry, and lichen. From here, overlooking a colorful maple and beech forest, you'll view the grandest panorama of the Presidential Range, from Mounts Madison to Webster, with Washington front and center.