On an average year, the northern New England states—Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont—hit their peak autumn colors anywhere from the last week of September to the first couple weeks of October. Meanwhile, the southern states in the region—Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut—usually hit their peak around mid-October.

The fall colors in New England are beautiful every year, and the timing of the annual show and progression of peak color is generally predictable. The leaves begin to change in the far north and at high elevations in mid-September, and the peak wave typically slides south, downhill, and toward the coast between late September and early November.