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The most breathtaking national forests for fall color in the U.S.

From mountain aspens to Southern hardwoods, these national forests offer vivid fall color, scenic trails, and fewer crowds than nearby parks

Credit: White Mountains

National parks get most of the attention when fall color season rolls around, and the crowds that follow often make the experience feel more like a traffic jam than a nature walk. National forests offer the same blazing maples and golden aspens with far less competition for parking or trail space. The country has more than 150, spread across 40 states, and plenty peak with as much drama as their more famous park neighbors. Many national forests border or surround national parks entirely, meaning visitors can often catch comparable scenery from a nearby trailhead with only a fraction of the traffic and parking headaches.

Timing matters more here than in most travel planning, since foliage windows shift by latitude, elevation, and a given year’s weather. Forests in the northern Rockies and Great Lakes region often turn as early as mid-September, while lower-elevation forests in the South can hold onto color into November. Elevation changes the math even within a single forest, letting some destinations stretch their color show across several weeks instead of peaking all at once. Checking a foliage tracker like The Old Farmer’s Almanac map before booking can save a trip from arriving either too early or too late. Wildlife often lines up with the color too, since fall is also mating and migration season for elk, birds, and other animals that share these forests. This overlap gives visitors a reason to look up from the trail as often as they look at the trees themselves.

The nine forests below appear in Travel Leisure, covering destinations from the Rockies to Appalachia to the Pacific Northwest. Each entry covers the trails, drives, and seasonal timing that make the forest worth visiting once the leaves start turning, along with the specific weeks when color tends to peak.

1. Arapaho and Roosevelt Forests ring a national park

Credit: USDA Forest Service

Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests wrap around Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park in a loose semi-circle, putting some of Colorado’s best aspen groves within easy striking distance of the Front Range. Denver sits just an hour or two away, making the forests a realistic day trip for visitors who don’t want to commit an entire vacation to the drive.

The terrain here rewards visitors willing to get out of the car. Peaks climb past 14,000 feet within the forest boundaries, and a dense network of trails threads through the lower elevations where most of the gold color actually shows up each fall. Hikers can choose anything from a short loop near a trailhead parking lot to a full-day trek toward one of the higher summits, depending on how much elevation gain they’re willing to take on.

Visitors who’d rather stay in the car can get much of the same scenery from the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway, without the climbing. The route runs from the Denver area through both forests and the surrounding wilderness before ending in Estes Park, threading past aspen groves that turn a brilliant gold against the darker evergreens. Pull-offs along the way give drivers plenty of chances to stop for photos without holding up traffic.

Foliage here peaks between late September and early October, a window that overlaps with elk mating season in the area. Visitors hiking or driving through at dawn or dusk stand a real chance of hearing bull elk bugling across the valleys, adding a soundtrack to the color show that few other fall destinations can match. This overlap makes late September an especially good time to visit if wildlife matters as much as the leaves themselves.

Brainard Lake Recreation Area, tucked within the Roosevelt side of the forest, offers a quieter alternative to the busier Peak to Peak corridor for visitors seeking foliage without a crowd of other cars. On calm mornings, the lake reflects the surrounding aspen groves, giving photographers a doubled version of the same gold color without needing to hike more than a short distance from the parking area.

2. White Mountain National Forest lights up New England

Credit: White Mountains

New England’s reputation for fall color didn’t come from nowhere, and White Mountain National Forest sits close to the center of why. Maples, birches, oaks, and ash trees crowd the hillsides here, and when they turn, they do it in shades of crimson, gold, and tawny brown that photographers spend entire trips chasing. The show typically starts in late September and holds through most of October, depending on the year’s specific weather.

The Kancamagus Scenic Byway offers the single best introduction to that color, running 34.5 miles through some of the forest’s most dramatic terrain. Mountain overlooks appear at regular intervals along the route, along with rivers and a historic covered bridge that gives the drive a distinctly New England character beyond just the trees themselves. Few scenic byways in the country pack this much variety into a single afternoon drive.

Hikers looking to get closer to the color have plenty of options too. The Basin Cascade Trail covers roughly 2.5 miles, mixing dense hardwood forest with waterfalls and the sound of moving water throughout most of the route. This pairing of foliage and flowing water gives the trail a sensory richness that........

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