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For foliage resources & reports, update your bookmarks to "NJ Fall Foliage".

The 2012 NJ Fall Foliage season has begun - get out and start enjoying the color!

Autumn color can be fleeting and elusive, so to help others in search of where the color is around New Jersey (as well as nearby areas in PA/NY), you can post Fall Foliage updates in this forum.

For a list of foliage resources, check out our "NJ Fall Foliage" page. (If you have foliage resources we don't have listed there - web sites, twitter feeds, or whatnot - post them here and we'll add to our foliage page)

Post the park or area, the amount of color (ie, unchanged, low, medium, peak color), and the date, and we'll add the report to the "NJ Fall Foliage" page. Include a photo if you have one!

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The 2012 NJ Fall Foliage season is just getting started, with a little color showing up in northern New Jersey.

 

9/30/12

Wildcat Ridge WMA and the Hawkwatch in Morris County, and the Rt 287 corridor from New Brunswick to Rt 80: Low color change with mostly green, some pops of vibrant yellow and red. Some leaf drop along the trails.

 

View from the Hawkwatch at Wildcat Ridge, 9/30/12

Wildcat Ridge Trail, 9/30/12

The AT in Stokes is still mostly green. Just a few touches of color looking west from the peaks. A few more days and I think the colors will start to come out.

9/30/12 - Cushetunk Mountain Nature Preserve and Round Valley Reservoir

Some color on the north side of Cushetunk Mountain in the preserve, with color starting on the other side of the mountain around Round Valley Reservoir.

Out at Lehigh Gap Nature Center in Palmerton, Pa. two weeks ago there was a smattering of color.  Interesting to see little punches of deep ruby and a splotch of burnt orange-tinged leaves here and there dotting nearby hillsides.

We made a quick run out to Sourland last Sunday before (as well as during :( ) the showers and found more color change beginning there.  No pictures taken that day mainly due to the inclement weather. Besides most everything looked somewhat dreary and bedraggled thanks to this persistent cloud cover we seem to be under in the Northeast.  Makes me long for another beautiful, sunny day like the one we were blessed with in Pa. 

Linda

10/6/12

Route 1/295/55, and Route 54 in Buena to 206 up to Bordentown: Slight blush of low, mild color

10/08/2012 - Catskills, NY Platte Clove to Overlook Mountain

If you can't make it to the Catskills NOW (color is already on it's way out depending on the elevation), here is a preview of what is coming south.  Unfortunately, Overlook Mountain was in a cloud yesterday so it was hard to get pictures of the surrounding mountains with foliage.  Harriman/Sterling was becoming colorful driving by up I-87.

With the weather still so chancy Saturday, we opted to stick closer to home and give Watchung Reservation a shot.  Less than an hour's drive and managed to get in 11.6miles.  While mileage was decent, I wouldn't travel more than an hour to have done this place.  It's...well...as others have said before..."eh".  But, still, better than nothing. 

Color was minimal with many early, dried-out leaves falling like snow.  These leaves were 'golden', but only so because of leaf scortch due to lack of adequate rains this summer.   (Apparently too much rain for hikers, but not enough for trees!)

I'm hoping this doesn't mean a late or lack-luster autumn foliage further south.  We're headed to Virginia this Saturday for 10 days of hiking the Blue Ridge & Shenandoah areas. At least I hope it doesn't rain. :( :( :(

Flora aside....saw like bazillion chipmunks & squirrels frantically darting about the leaf-strewn forest floor, which I'm told, augers for a snowier-than-usual winter.  Considering we didn't have more than a few flakes here last winter, that could mean anything.

Also tracked this giant blue heron several hundred yards just gliding along in this roadside creek.  Helped to make this hike more worthwhile.

Linda

Did you know that October is "Squirrel Awareness Month"? (I did not make this up; heard it on NPR)

10/14/12
Sunrise Mountain, Stokes State Forest:
High color to approaching peak, though there is still a good amount of green. As in recent years, the color isn't turning all at once for a somewhat mixed result. On the trails, a moderate amount of leaf drop.

Route 287 and 206 corridor from New Brunswick to Stokes:

  • Route 287 in New Brunswick to Route 206: low color change, 20-30%.
  • Route 206 through the Chester area, mixed green with 30-40% change.
  • Route 206 through Andover, moderate, 40%
  • Route 206 near Lake Owassa and approaching the park: 40-50%

View on Cartwright trail

Sunrise Mountain viewpoint


On the trails

Hey NJ Hiking,

Were you on Sunrise Mtn. on Sunday afternoon? If so, we may have crossed paths. We were there for a while, just relaxing.

I keep waiting for that dramatic color change, but i can't get the oaks & the maples to agree on a common time.

Hey Paul - we were, so it's possible! though I have no idea at what time we were on the ridge, as we tend to not look at a clock whilst hiking :)

--Dawn

10/21/2012 - Delaware Water Gap and I-80


Anything out I-80 was peak and stunning today (Allamuchy, Jenny Jump).  This is just a snapshot along I-80 and it does not do it justice:

Mt. Tammany is past peak and there is a lot of leaf drop but Dunnfield Creek still has some green.  Views from Mt. Tammany are at peak.

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