Seasonal & Holidays

Where Leaf Colors Are Peaking In Virginia This Weekend

Here's where to find Virginia's best fall colors this weekend as the peak nears, plus a tool to help you plan your leaf-peeping drives.

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VIRGINIA — To get blazing red, vibrant orange and sunny yellow leaf colors, we need crisp autumn nights, which Virginia has just reached with cooler weather in the past week, bringing the leaf colors out with a bang, says the Virginia Department of Foresty. Exactly when trees will put on their autumnal show in the Commonwealth and DC varies each year, but there's a tool to help you plan excursions around the dates when fall foliage should be at its most fabulous.

The Fall Foliage Report for the weekend of Nov. 3 by the VDOF says a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive, or any of western Virginia’s byways offers views of red and orange maples, deep red dogwoods, yellow beeches, and golden hickories. "This weekend should be near peak coloration for the mid- to higher elevations throughout the western mountains," the agency says. "More good news: Oak trees tend to change later, so there is more color yet to come."

Lower Blue Ridge elevations, the Shenandoah Valley and the Piedmont are behind the mountains, but there are good patches of color throughout those regions. In the Coastal Plain, you’ll often see the first color in low swampy areas, as well as on city and landscape trees. Along eastern roadways, look for saltbush beginning to open its frothy white blooms, the foliage report notes.

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The VDOF-recommended fall foliage driving tours designed by local foresters include:

How To Check On Foliage

Find out what's happening in Fredericksburgfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Our state offers some stunning vistas, including several in state parks suggested by the Virginia Department of Forestry:

And Visit Fairfax offers these suggestions for nearby foliage:

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If you’re planning a trip somewhere else, the Fall Foliage Prediction Map can help you pinpoint the best dates for a visit. The map, found on the Smoky Mountain National Park website, includes predictions not just for the Smokies, which rise above the Tennessee-North Carolina border, but for all 50 states.

And The Foliage Network posts regular updates on when leaves start to drop and the colors start to turn.

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 stay healthy — 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.

For example, beta-carotenes reflect the yellow and red light from the sun and give 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.

Photo by Patch Editor Beth Dalbey

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