Leaf-peeping in New England gets the most media coverage, but the astute traveler in planning a fall foliage adventure would do well to look at our national parks, both well-known and lesser known, for woods ablaze with red, amber and gold.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is easily the most popular park for a fall visit and with good reason: the autumn show is spectacular and changes by the week according to elevation. A huge variety of trees (nearly 100 species) are responsible for a color show that attracts visitors from far and wide. Favorites include the flowering dogwood with its deep red color, the yellows and oranges of the sugar maple, the reds and yellows of the red maple, and the scarlet of the scarlet oak.

If our national parks conducted a popularity contest for most fall foliage visitors, the clear winners in each region of the country are the better-known parks. Acadia National Park and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia top the charts in the East and Southeast; Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the South; Cuyahoga Valley National Park in the Midwest; Rocky Mountain National Park and Zion National Park in the West; Mount Rainer National Park and Yosemite National Park in the Far West.

Lesser known—in fact to many visitors unheard of—national parks offer great fall foliage displays minus the crowds. Consider Saint Gaudens National Historic Site in New Hampshire or Saratoga National Historic Park in New York. Down South check out Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Kentucky and Little River Canyon National Preserve in Alabama. Midwest marvels off the tourist track include Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin and Grand Portage National Monument in Minnesota.

Out West, don’t miss an autumn tour through Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas or Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado. And in California, find some fine fall color in Lassen National Park, which has a low visitor count during every season.

Just in case kids (or adults) ask “Why do leaves change color in the fall?” here’s some help with the answer:

Leaves change colors when trees stop producing chlorophyll, the green pigments which are the photoreceptors of light energy in the process of photosynthesis. When the chlorophyll ceases, other vibrant colors emerge.

Color—whether brilliant, pale, or somewhere in between—is directly related to the weather conditions before and while the chlorophyll content is decreasing. Ideal conditions for a great autumn display are clear sunny days and cool nights—without being too frosty or below freezing; these conditions are best for trapping sugars in the leaves which, in turn, produce the brightest reds and other colors.

Of course, autumn is a splendid time to be outdoors and to visit a national park for reasons quite apart from the fall foliage display: no crowds, great travel deals, excellent wildlife-watching opportunities and bug-free hiking trails.

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Five Fall Favorites

Acadia National Park

When thoughts turn to fall foliage, mountain locations not coastal ones are top-of-mind. However, Acadia can compete in color palette with the best of mountain New England. Reds and golds backed by the bold blue Atlantic are scenes to remember. Take a hike to the top of park high point, Cadillac Mountain, and behold a colorful spectacle indeed.

Score one more for Acadia: fall color lasts longer in the park because the marine environment has a moderating influence on the temperature over the trees.

Shenandoah National Park

Autumn color dazzles all along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile national scenic byway that runs from Virginia into North Carolina,  and most particularly in  Shenandoah National Park, north of the parkway in Virginia. Adding to the park’s autumn arboreal attractions are fall wildflowers including goldenrod, aster and harebells.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The earliest fall color occurs at the park’s highest elevations--4,500 to 6,000 feet when the yellow birch, American beech, and mountain maple begin to turn. A lower-elevation favorite is the sweetgum, often found lining stream banks and flashing yellows, purples and reds.

Veteran Great Smoky autumn visitors warn that the most popular spot for fall foliage—Cades Cove—while plenty beautiful is often plenty crowded. Cataloochee, on the eastern side of the Park, is a far-less less crowded alternative, as is Rich Mountain.

Zion National Park

Zion’s high country is the first to don its fall finery when the aspens change color. Last, but certainly not least is the lush woodland at the bottom of Zion Canyon and along the Virgin River. Various deciduous trees display yellow, orange and red hues while the golden cottonwoods seem to steal the show.

Yosemite National Park

Veteran travelers to Yosemite often wince at the mention of Highway 41, the park’s  overly-traveled and often congested main entryway. In autumn, however, park visitation plunges dramatically and the highway becomes a beautiful mountain road once more—all the more beautiful by a display of fall color along it that’s typical of that inside the national park. Look first for flashes, then for great swaths, of reds, yellows and oranges as the dogwoods, black oaks,  big-leaf maples add lovely hues to the lower elevations of the High Sierra.

National Parks Web Cams Eye Fall Foliage

Check out the web video cameras in the national parks listed below for an up-to-the-minute display of fall finery.

Acadia National Park
Glacier National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Look Rock Cam
Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Purchase Knob Cam
Mammoth Cave National Park