Fall Foliage Is Peaking In MA: 6 Local Spots To Leaf Peep

MILFORD, MA — You don't need to look any farther than your own backyard to know that fall foliage is peaking right about now.

A nationwide fall foliage map predicted Massachusetts would peak right around Oct. 11. That's not too far off, and this weekend might be the perfect time to go leaf-peeping since the weather is supposed to be mostly clear and sunny.

Some of the top places to see fall leaves in Massachusetts to consider:

Mount Greylock

At over 3,400 feet tall, Mount Greylock in Adams gives hikers a chance to see beautiful fall foilage from the highest point in Massachusetts. When the skies are clear, hikers that reach the peak can see more than 90 miles of autumn scenery. You can also drive to the top, but it gets crowded.

Mohawk Trail

This fall driving tour stretches 69 miles from Williamstown to Greenfield through forest beaming with the beautiful colors of fall foliage. If you take this two-to-three hour drive, you'll see the foliage from a sea of white oaks, sugar maples and yellow birch trees. Other attractions along the way include glacial potholes and the Bridge of Flowers at Shelburne Falls.

Mt. Watatic

A relatively short hike takes you to the expansive, bare summit of this mountain in Ashburnham, which is the highest point in Middlesex County. It's almost as tall as nearby Mount Wachusett but without any of the crowds (although Watatic does get busy in its own right). You can also extend your trip by hopping on the 21-mile Wapack Trail, which takes you north into New Hampshire and across several more peaks that give you generous views in all directions.

Upper Charles Trail

Hop on your bike at the beginning of this trail in Milford and take an approximately 8-mile ride into downtown Holliston. You'll get to see foliage in a variety of different settings, from farms and wetlands to the backyards near downtown Milford and Holliston.

Breakneck Hill

This conservation area in Southborough used to be farmland. Except for a few well-maintained trails, the land has been left to grow naturally, giving visitors spectacular views of rolling fields full of wild plants dotted with trees. You might even find a ripe apple along the way.

Bancroft Tower

Park near Institute Park along the edge of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and walk up to Bancroft Tower via Massachusetts Avenue. You'll get a tour of some of Worcester's oldest mansions with plenty of fall colors mixed in. Then it's a short hike to Bancroft Tower, where you can get a nice view of the colors in the city below.

David Angotti, an expert on statistics who lives in Tennessee, was in the property management business a decade ago when he created the first Fall Foliage Prediction Map to help visitors plan their Great Smoky Mountains vacations. But then they wanted to know about peak leaf season in other parts of Tennessee, so he decided to collect data for the entire country.

The tool has developed as a fall vacation planning essential. Last year alone, it received more than 5 million views on SmokyMountains.com and about 30 million more on the news websites, including Patch.

Most people use the leaf map to simply check when foliage will peak near their homes, or to plan a leaf peeping trip.

“However, through the years, we have heard some fascinating stories about how the tool was leveraged,” Angotti said in a news release. “Some of our favorites include a bride in the Northeast changing the date of her outdoor wedding, a director scheduling a movie shoot on location based on our predictions and even a grade school teacher planning a trip to a nearby forest.”

There’s more than shorter days, longer nights and falling temperatures to signal to trees that it’s time to prepare for winter. The predictive map uses a complex algorithm that analyzes several million data points and spits out about 50,000 predictive data pieces.

This allows for a county-by-county forecast on the precise day the peak should occur. This year, the formula will get a midseason update in late September that will pull in the latest data to increase the accuracy and usefulness of the tool.

The major factors that determine the fall foliage peak are sunlight, precipitation, soil moisture and temperature. They come from a variety of sources including historical precipitation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration precipitation forecasts, elevation, actual temperatures, temperature forecasts and average daylight exposure to develop each county’s fall baseline date.

What Causes The Different Colors

You probably remember from science class that the color change all starts with photosynthesis. Leaves constantly churn out chlorophyll — a key component in a plant’s ability to turn sunlight into the glucose it needs to thrive — from spring through early fall. Those cells saturate the leaves, making them appear green to the human eye.

But leaves aren’t green at all. Autumn is the time for leaves’ big reveal: their true color, unveiled as chlorophyll production grinds to a halt. The colors in fall’s breathtaking tapestry are influenced by other compounds, according to the national park’s website.

Beta carotene, the same pigment that makes carrots orange, reflects the yellow and red light from the sun and gives leaves an orange hue.

The production of anthocyanin, which gives leaves their vivid red color, ramps up in the fall, protecting and prolonging the leaf’s life on a tree throughout autumn.

And those yellows that make you feel as if you’re walking in a ray of sunshine?

They’re produced by flavonol, which is part of the flavonoid protein family. It’s always present in leaves but doesn’t show itself until chlorophyll production begins to slow.