Enjoy Maine's Fall Foliage Season

On a cool crisp fall day in Maine you can enjoy the brilliant colors of the changing foliage of the trees throughout the state. As a visitor you will find that there are several bus tours available for foliage viewing or you can go for a leisure trip with loved ones. A Mainer is much more likely to hop into the car and head out to a favored spot for "leaf peeping."

The backdrop of deep evergreen trees causes the red, yellow, rust and orange colors of oak, maple, birch and poplar trees to stand out. When sunlight bursts through the puffy cloud cover the color is highlighted further. It is nature's beauty. A parting kiss before winter moves into the state.

When I was a child my parents and grandparents would pile us into my grandfather's Ford LTD for a "foliage trip". My Dad drove his father's car, his parents seated in the front with him. My sisters, mother and I filled the back seat. We live in central Maine and the Skowhegan area is a great place to view the colors of Autumn. Route 2 is a highly traveled road that is rich with fall color-enhanced scenery.

The Kennebec River offers beautiful scenes and a view of the area that is a portion of the Benedict Arnold Trail. The images of the colored leaves and occasional pure white birch tree trunks are reflected in the water on calm days. You can continue to travel to Bingham and on to Greenville into Moosehead lake country or drive into Madison for vistas of mountain ranges. You will be sure to travel by fields of large round golden hay bales left out to winter over and stands with rows of bright orange pumpkins.

The days of my childhood are in my memory. There was a time that my husband and I have bundled our young children into our vehicle and taken them out to 'ooh and ahh' over the beautiful fall colors. The Sebasticook River Valley region of Maine turns out in full Autumn color with country roads along the side of the river in Pittsfield, Burnham and Fairfield. We would travel the area and wend our way back to Newport to visit a local orchard for fresh crisp apples. At other times my sisters, mother and our children would travel through the beautiful town of St. Albans to a pick your own apple orchard on a cool late afternoon.

The beauty of fall foliage is seen in any area of the state of Maine from the gorgeous coastal regions to the Western Mountains near Bethel, up into the wilds of the Allagash and onward to Aroostook County. If you plan to visit Maine during the foliage season it is very important to check to see when this colorful season is upon the state.