The changing colours of New England

Trees begin to change colour across New England as fall arrives. Rishad Saam Mehta takes a leaf-peeping road trip to admire and photograph the fall foliage

The Rangeley Lake region

There’s abundant birdlife here

Colonial architecture in the little town of Phillips near Rangeley in Maine

Between the last week of September and the last week of October, the region of New England, which lies in the North East of the USA, goes into over-saturation mode. It is simply sublime, especially on days when the sky is blue and the sun is out. The variety and richness of colour as the leaves of paper birch, sugar maple, American beech and sassafras turn from green to gold, yellow, orange, russet and red evoke spontaneous sighs of appreciation for the beauty of it all.

On a recent road trip through the region, my friend, who is a photography enthusiast at times, felt her fascination tinged with an ever so slight touch of helplessness because she couldn’t shake off that feeling that no matter how fancy the camera, or how sharp the lens, she just wouldn’t be able to capture the full effect of the spectacular autumn foliage in a photograph.

Now the hard fact is that because fall is so fleeting, many tourists descend on this region. These ‘leaf peepers’, as they are called, arrive in coaches and cars that often cause traffic snarls in popular New England towns and along well-established routes. But the foliage is everywhere and sometimes even denser and on routes way off the well-established tourist trails and it is on these routes that we found some stunning scenery. One of the drives that we did in Maine was along the state highways 16 and 17 and these routes went past lakes and rivers that had been used as water highways by Native Americans for thousands of years. The area, called the Rangeley Lake region, comprises Mooselookmeguntic Lake, Rangeley Lake and the Upper and Lower Richardson Lake to name a few. Native Americans moved into this region following the retreat of glaciers about 11000 years ago. In a region rich in flora and fauna, they used these lakes and the rivers that feed into them as highways in the pursuit of fish and game. The forests that continue to populate the region even today thanks to them being protected, provided them with birch bark that they used to make lightweight canoes that allowed travel along smaller streams and the possibility of being ported across land when the water was too shallow or very rough. Today, one can go on a recreational paddle along these ancient and historic water highways on what is called the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. We, however, drove the scenic roads that went past these lakes pulling up ever so often to take pictures at scenic overlooks and go on little walks that led through colourful forests to vantage viewpoints.

The most stunning part of the drive was on Maine’s Highway 17 between Oquossoc and Byron. Here, the Rangeley Overlook afforded vast sprawling views of the Mooslookmeguntic Lake ringed by fall foliage and further down the highway, the Height of Land Scenic Overlook gave a sense of how these waterways might have been used by Native Americans. We drove further south climbing to the watershed between Rangeley Lake and the Androscoggin River valley and arrived at Coos Canyon. In this dramatic little gorge, the Swift River drops in a series of the forceful waterfall over smooth and shiny bedrock. This is a region that is very sparsely populated today but was one of the first to be inhabited in the New World which is why there are still remnants of Victorian-era architecture with houses with clapboard exteriors and churches with wrought iron weather vanes like the one we say in the little village of Phillips where we stopped for lunch. Driving east from Phillips on Maine Highway 4 past the unimaginatively named towns of Butterfield and Madrid we came upon a little road sneaking away to the left about 8 miles after Phillips. This inconspicuous road led to the lovely wooded area from where it is a short walk to the base of the Small Falls. These falls drop about 50 feet and would have been spectacular if there had been a little more water. However, the surrounding foliage more than made up for the lack of cubits. It is also possible to climb to the top of the falls after crossing the wooden footbridge across the Sandy River a little distance from the base of the falls. From here, it was just another 12 miles to the town of Rangeley which is on the northern corner of Rangeley Lake. It is the ideal base from where to explore the myriad of adventure activities this region offers on water and land. The most convenient starting city for exploring New England during fall is Boston. Ideally, you should explore this region at the wheel of a car, as this will afford you flexibility. You should ideally book accommodation in advance since prices soar during this very popular time. Airbnb is a good option since local hosts are a huge resource of knowledge with regard to the local area.