If you're driving this in autumn, you already know why you came — and here's the science behind the show. All summer, the leaves around you are factories, green with chlorophyll, turning sunlight into sugar. But under that green, other colors are already there — the yellows and oranges have been hiding in the leaf the whole time. When the nights turn cold and the days grow short, the tree stops making chlorophyll, the green drains away, and those hidden colors finally show.
The fiery reds are different — those the tree actually manufactures fresh in the fall, and the crisp, sunny days with cold nights that New England does so well are exactly what make them blaze. That's why this particular corner of the world is world-famous for it. The sugar maples throw scarlet and orange, the birches and beeches go gold, the oaks run deep bronze. Peak up here is usually late September into mid-October, earlier on the high summits than down in the valleys. If the timing's right, you picked the best road in America to see it.
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0
