Autumn Adventures: America’s Most Magnificent Fall Road Trips
Skip the hayrides. These drives, from New Hampshire’s Kancamagus to Arkansas’s Ozark Highlands, deliver real autumn drama without the cornball detours.
Autumn travel has graduated from pumpkin-patch kitsch to a serious national pastime—and the numbers prove it. American Airlines reports an 11 percent spike in fall foliage travel this year, and the demographic breakdown reads like a cultural Rorschach test. Millennials are booking westward flights to Denver, lured by the Rockies’ scale and solitude, while Gen Z is clustering in Boston and New York, where leaf-peeping pairs neatly with city weekends. Families want both—urban museums and pumpkin patches within an hour’s drive—while solo travelers are gravitating toward Spokane and Jackson Hole, toggling between brewery chatter and high-altitude quiet.
The draw is obvious. Fall delivers a rare three-in-one package: landscapes that crush Instagram, harvest flavors you actually want to eat (cider, pies, fire-roasted everything) and itineraries that bend to your mood. You can spend a day shoulder-to-shoulder at a harvest festival or find yourself alone on a back road with nothing but your acoustic folk playlist and the smell of woodsmoke. Both versions are equally on brand for the season.
That’s why we pulled together the drives that nail the energy. Some are canon, like the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, while others still fly under the radar, like the Ozark Highlands in Arkansas or Nova Scotia’s Cabot Trail. Each route reminds you why the fall months still make a tank of gas feel like the best ticket in travel. The only real problem? Figuring out whether to pack boots for hiking, boots for breweries or both.
Fall in the Adirondacks lasts longer than most places, with color cascading south across six million acres from late September into late October. Towns dives into the season as apple orchards open their gates, farm markets stack pumpkins like ammo and Oktoberfests justify another round before noon. Route 73’s High Peaks Scenic Byway cuts between Lake Placid and Keene Valley, with trailheads and pullouts that make you wonder if you really need that hike after all. Lake Placid still shows its Olympic skeleton—ski jumps on the skyline and rinks running year-round—but the breweries, coffee shops and gear stores keep it current. Ausable Chasm, the so-called “Grand Canyon of the East,” puts on its own show with sandstone cliffs and the river cutting below, best tackled on a guided hike or raft trip if ropes aren’t your thing. Even Fort Ticonderoga gets in on it, doubling as a leaf-peeping perch over Lake Champlain with the Green Mountains in the distance. Base yourself at Mirror Lake Inn, which marked its centennial in 2024 and is still run by the Weibrecht family.
Arkansas makes good on its “Natural State” tagline every October, when the Pig Trail and Scenic 7 Byway carve through the Boston and Ozark Mountains. Jasper’s century-old Ozark Café still anchors the drive, roadside pullouts stack up with endless Boston Mountain views, and trailheads remind you this isn’t just any old Sunday drive. Whitaker Point, better known as Hawksbill Crag, is the money shot: a sandstone ledge suspended over the Buffalo River wilderness after a three-mile hike. Mount Magazine tops out the state at 2,753 feet, with Signal Hill’s summit trail rewarding you with sightlines that stretch into Oklahoma. Devil’s Den delivers the quick win, with Yellow Rock Trail climbing to an outcrop that frames Lee Creek Valley in full sweep. And if you want the easy version, the Ozark National Forest does the work for you, lining both routes with pullouts that look ripped from a calendar. Overnight in Jasper at the Cliff House Inn, perched above the Arkansas Grand Canyon. It’s five rooms, three cabins and a restaurant where “Company’s Comin’ Pie” is non-negotiable. Order it, eat it, and then admit you’re already planning a return.
Skyline Drive is the Blue Ridge’s version of initiation, with 75 overlooks daring you to pull over. In October, granite ridgelines flame out, meadows glow and the Civilian Conservation Corps’ handiwork has you sliding through a rock tunnel one minute, and staring down ridges stacked like poker chips the next. Wildlife doesn’t care about your itinerary, either. (Those black bears, deer and wild turkeys tend to show up whenever they want.) Mary’s Rock Tunnel drops you straight into wide-angle views that explain why this drive never left the highlight reel; meanwhile, Old Rag is the bragging-rights climb with nine miles of scrambles and exposure. On the other hand, Stony Man gives you a quicker summit hit without the exhaustion tax. For the overnight, Skyland Lodge sits at 3,680 feet, the highest point in the park and the kind of place where porches and fireplaces do half the work.
This Canadian heavyweight splices together cliffside scenes and highland plateaus with Acadian villages and fishing harbors that make getting out of the car as rewarding as the drive itself. The Skyline Trail earns its hype with a boardwalk hike to a headland facing the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ingonish Beach, a sandy strip where foliage runs straight into Atlantic surf, is the curveball. In Chéticamp, rug-hooking doubles as art, fiddle music runs late and local inns still feed you cod, lobster and wild blueberries like you’ve been transported to the 19th century. In Cape Breton Highlands National Park, you’ll have the choice of 25-plus trails, most short enough to knock out between lunch and dinner but designed to deliver maximum payoff. Hotel options track the same range: Cabot Cape Breton for world-ranked golf, Cabot Shores Wilderness Resort for domes and yurts warmed by wood stoves, and the Chanterelle Inn outside Baddeck for proper cottage vibes spotlighting local seafood in the onsite restaurant.
The Columbia River Gorge is the Pacific Northwest’s marquee fall drive. Multnomah Falls is the signature pit stop to snap photos of Oregon’s tallest waterfall framed by an arched stone bridge. The Historic Columbia River Highway still outshines the admittedly more efficient interstate with mossy tunnels, stonework and overlooks that reset your sense of scale. Definitely explore the Hood River Fruit Loop, which is a 35-mile patchwork of orchards, cideries and farm stands into a rolling tasting menu, or Rowena Crest, which supplies the viewpoint everyone wants: the Gorge’s signature hairpin. Overnight, you’ve got options: the Columbia Gorge Hotel & Spa still carries 1920s swagger, Skamania Lodge sprawls across 175 acres with a jammed roster of activities, and Carson Ridge Luxury Cabins flips the script with fireplaces, jetted tubs and meadow views that feel private but sit minutes from the trailheads.
”The Kanc” spans New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, turning into a pilgrimage site each October with leaf-peepers jockeying for pullouts and photo ops. The route threads from Lincoln to Conway, serving up covered bridges, trailheads and mountain overlooks that compress the whole fall fantasy into one ribbon of asphalt. Stop at the 1858 Albany Covered Bridge for the classic shot, hike up to Sabbaday Falls for a three-tiered cascade framed by hardwoods, and wander Rocky Gorge where the Swift River cuts through granite. Even après-leafing has its rituals: May Kelly’s Cottage in North Conway pulls pints and serves hearty Irish fare with Cathedral Ledge as the backdrop. Accommodation runs the spectrum of rustic and regal: The Mountain Club on Loon keeps you close to the trailheads, while the Omni Mount Washington Resort goes Gilded Age with its palatial façade and grand-scale mountain views.
The Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway is northern New Mexico’s answer to the classic fall loop, an 83-mile circuit around Wheeler Peak, the state’s highest summit. The road swings above 9,000 feet in places, so mornings come crisp and trailheads arrive in quick succession. Along the way, you get more than scenery: Taos Pueblo, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been continuously inhabited for over 1,000 years; Eagle Nest Lake State Park draws both elk and bald eagles to its alpine shoreline; and Chimayó Trading del Norte in Ranchos de Taos delivers gallery-level Native pottery and Navajo textiles. The loop also stitches together Red River and Angel Fire, two mountain towns packed with breweries, live music and fall festivals. To cap it off, book Bishop’s Lodge, Auberge Resorts Collection outside Santa Fe. Set on a 317-acre retreat once owned by an archbishop, it now pairs casita-style rooms with kiva fireplaces, horseback trails and fly-fishing streams. It’s a luxury base camp with real cultural roots.
California’s Pacific Coast Highway offers a West Coast rebuttal to the leaf-peeping circuits back east. The 150-mile run from San Francisco to Big Sur is an All-American Road for good reason: it pairs cruising the oceanfront with detours like Muir Woods, where ancient redwoods tower overhead. Push south and you’ll hit Carmel-by-the-Sea, the kind of storybook village that doubles down on charm in autumn, its cobbled lanes and cottages taking on a seasonal glow. Wine drinkers will want to angle inland toward Beauregard Vineyards in Bonny Doon for pours of pinot noir and chardonnay in a setting that’s more sun-dappled hideout than tasting room. The drive itself—cliff edges, hairpins and long Pacific horizons—needs no embellishment, but a smart overnight stop is La Playa Carmel. Fresh from a 2024 renovation, the 1905 mansion-turned-hotel still answers to “The Grand Dame of Carmel,” with terraced gardens, bluffside views and a location that leaves the car parked and the beach just a few blocks away.
“America’s Favorite Drive” is a 469-mile handshake between Virginia’s Shenandoah and North Carolina’s Great Smokies, but the real trick is pacing yourself through the stops. Near Linville, Grandfather Mountain tests your nerve with its Mile High Swinging Bridge, while the Linn Cove Viaduct proves that an elevated curve of concrete can be as photogenic as any overlook. Outside Asheville, the Folk Art Center is the Parkway’s cultural pit stop, stocked with quilts, woodcarvings and pottery that feel more gallery than gift shop. And if you’re chasing bragging rights, detour to Mount Mitchell, the tallest peak east of the Mississippi, where a quick paved trail delivers you straight to the summit deck. Overnighting calls for something beyond a chain motel, like Primland, a 12,000-acre resort in Virginia’s Meadows of Dan, fits the bill with its treehouse cabins that hang over the valleys and stargazing at the on-site observatory.
M-22 loops around Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula, kicking off in Traverse City, the so-called “Cherry Capital of the World.” But it’s more than orchards. The town’s breweries, restaurants and waterfront make it an easy launch pad. From there, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore steals the show with 400-foot dunes dropping into Lake Michigan and the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive serving up big-screen overlooks. Leland’s Fishtown is the cultural counterpoint with its century-old shanties now house galleries, shops and iconic Village Cheese Shanty—worth a stop for sandwiches alone. To drink local, cut inland to Tandem Ciders in Suttons Bay, where small-batch pours showcase Michigan apples in their purest form. Go upscale for your hotel bookings at the Inn at Bay Harbor, an Autograph Collection property perched on Little Traverse Bay with a spa and golf course, or stay closer to the action at Black Star Farms, a quaint winery inn tucked into the vineyards just outside Traverse City.
Colorado’s Trail Ridge Road, better known as the “Highway to the Sky,” earns its name fast as the highest continuous paved road in the U.S., topping out at 12,183 feet. The 48-mile drive climbs from valley floor to alpine tundra, delivering a fall experience that swaps cozy leaf piles for windswept drama. Stops add character along the way: the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796 feet doubles as the park system’s highest, with hot chocolate on hand for anyone feeling the altitude; the Holzwarth Historic Site near Grand Lake preserves a 1920s dude ranch much as it stood a century ago; and the Gore Range Overlook, at 12,010 feet, frames distant peaks, the Never Summer Mountains and the Kawuneeche Valley in one panoramic sweep. Denver’s Populus—opened in 2024 as the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel—stuns with its aspen-bark-inspired architecture and light-filled interiors, while Estes Park keeps it more stately (and eerie) with the Stanley Hotel, the mountain-view landmark forever tied to The Shining.
The Seward Highway is Alaska in widescreen: a supremely scenic corridor where the Chugach Mountains rise hard on one side and Turnagain Arm spreads out on the other. The opening stretch south of Anchorage feels cinematic enough—Beluga Point and Bird Point pullouts let you scan for whales in the inlet and Dall sheep on the cliffs—before the road drops into Portage Valley and the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a 200-acre refuge. Push farther and you’ll hit Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park, where Exit Glacier spills from the Harding Icefield and rewards even the casual hiker with a blue-ice encounter. Stay at Resurrection Lodge on the Bay—sea otters and puffins are part of the wake-up call—or break the drive in Girdwood at Alyeska Resort, complete with a tram to Mount Alyeska for views over the Arm.
The Eastern Townships are Quebec’s answer to bucolic France: rolling hills, heritage towns, vineyards and a distinctly Francophone way of life just 90 minutes from Montreal. Two routes set the framework. There’s the Route des Vins, which winds through the Brome-Missisquoi wine region. Visit Vignoble de l’Orpailleur and Château de Cartes for a backdrop of cider mills and apple orchards, or the Chemin des Cantons for Victorian architecture and covered bridges. Add in VéloVolant, a canopy-level pedal ride suspended 100 feet up, and Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve, where you can hike by day and stargaze by night, and the Townships hit all the notes. Base yourself at Manoir Hovey, a Relais & Châteaux retreat on Lake Massawippi, where maple-driven tasting menus and lakefront views seal the deal.
The Best Places for a Fall Foliage Road Trip in North America
The Longest Fall: Adirondack Loop, New York
The Natural Scenic Byways: Arkansas
The Skyline Drive: Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
The Cabot Trail: Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
The Columbia River Gorge: Oregon and Washington
The Classic: New England’s Kancamagus Highway
The Unexpected: Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, New Mexico
The Coastal Route: Pacific Coast Highway, California
The Mountain Majesty: Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia to North Carolina
The Great Lakes Getaway: M-22, Michigan
The Rocky Mountain High: Trail Ridge Road, Colorado
The Last Frontier: Seward Highway, Alaska
The Québécois Quest: The Eastern Townships
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