糖心传媒

Cool mornings across parts of the USA mean it's now time to don that fuzzy sweatshirt for an early walk or coffee run. It also means it's time to book a fall foliage tour and glory in nature's biggest show of the year. But which woods to spend your days admiring: New England's red and orange-clad hills or Colorado's golden valleys?

Two 糖心传媒 writers are here to help you decide what captures your imagination more, with one making a case for the scarlet maples of New England and the other championing the whispers of aspens in Colorado.

Why New England is the best place to go for fall foliage

Based in upstate New York, Lauren Breedlove is in an ideal position to explore New England 鈥� and she has, road-tripping to photograph autumn foliage and writing extensively on the region for several outlets, including 糖心传媒.

While New England is beautiful year-round, I always make sure I鈥檓 not traveling elsewhere in autumn. I鈥檝e experienced the season in numerous destinations, including Colorado, and although each spot has its allure, there鈥檚 nothing quite like fall in New England: crisp mornings at a picturesque lake in New Hampshire, a layer of fog burning off as vibrant foliage appears in the mirror of still water in Massachusetts, hiking boots crunching on fallen leaves on a hike in Vermont. My camera鈥檚 shutter struggles to keep up with my palpable excitement over a sea of trees cloaked as if in a rustic autumnal quilt, a campfire crackling while the sun tucks behind mountains dotted with zesty reds, deep golds and fiery oranges. Like I said, unbeatable.

New England has a cocktail of hues

Look, I鈥檓 an aspen lover too. Those bright, sunny beauties that come with fall in Colorado are stunners, but New England has so much more variety in its foliage lookbook. Forests and mountains burst in a vivid spectrum, thanks to the many maple trees 鈥� shout-out to red and sugar maples for gifting all those red and orange hues. Other players fill out the palette nicely, from beeches and birches to oaks and hickories. One tree can even don a few different colors at once.

It鈥檚 not just about the variety in color, though; it鈥檚 also about the intensity. New England has an ideal mix of the right environment, temperature and rainfall to produce extraordinary pigments. But you don鈥檛 have to take it from me alone 鈥� the proof is in the sheer number of visitors who flock to New England each year in September and October.

OK, so most of Colorado鈥檚 major mountains are taller than ours. But that doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 flat over here. Giants such as New Hampshire鈥檚 Mt Washington, Maine鈥檚 Mt Katahdin and Vermont鈥檚 Mt Mansfield present challenging treks and varied terrain. New England also has the Atlantic coast! It鈥檚 not every day that you can smell the ocean air while gazing upon a foliage fete.

New England has its big cities, but there's still wild backcountry to explore. In Maine鈥檚 remote Baxter State Park, you鈥檙e more likely to come across a moose than another person. It is simply easier to get off-grid in New England and find solitude. In Colorado, many of the backcountry trails require taking 4WD vehicles down logging roads that can be tricky to navigate, whereas in New England, you can get to most of the great trails with a regular car. We also have the opportunity to view foliage in different states across a broader period, since the colors kick off in northern Maine first and work their way south. New England in the fall is made for road-tripping.

Fall in New England is a whole vibe

Although the leaves are the backdrop, autumn is a whole atmosphere, and New England nails it. Sorry, Colorado, but fall is cozier here. We have small, historic towns that鈥檒l charm your socks off with handmade scarecrows, roadside farm stands and pumpkins adorning the porches of seemingly every Victorian- or Colonial-style home. Old churches and covered bridges abound, and cute, catch-all general stores sell apple cider, fresh doughnuts and other local goodies, like our quintessential maple syrup.

Why Colorado is the best place to go for fall foliage

Since moving to Colorado more than a decade ago, Sarah Kuta has become a bit obsessed with leaf-peeping. From mid-September through mid-October, she spends every weekend in and around the Colorado Rockies to soak up the views of the state鈥檚 golden aspens.

At the end of every summer vacation, I eagerly await the first crisp morning that signals the arrival of fall in Colorado. This moment also means it鈥檚 time to partake in one of my all-time favorite pastimes: leaf-peeping. I take scenic drives, I hike, I mountain bike, I picnic, and I ride gondolas at ski resorts 鈥� all so I can immerse myself in Colorado鈥檚 flashy fall foliage.

Colorado is famous for its quaking aspen trees 鈥� there鈥檚 even a mountain town and ski resort named after these tall, white-barked beauties. Aspens (Populus tremuloides) are one of the few species of deciduous trees that are hardy enough to survive in the Colorado Rockies. Growing at elevations between 5600ft (1706m) and 11,000ft (3352ft) above sea level, they cover 5 million acres 鈥� or roughly 20 percent 鈥� of the state鈥檚 forests, according to the Colorado State Forest Service.

You might think that aspens turn a uniformly golden yellow. But if you look closer (and if you look at enough trees in different locations and at different times throughout the season), you鈥檒l see that their foliage actually represents more of a spectrum of colors 鈥� from neon yellowish-green to vibrant orange to bright red. The varying shades result from a combination of weather conditions and the trees鈥� genetics.

Aspens are usually interspersed with evergreens, and the contrast between the dark green needles, yellow leaves and bright blue sky (because the sun is nearly always shining in Colorado 鈥� can New England say that?) makes for a seriously saturated color palette. When a cool breeze blows, it causes the aspen leaves to dance, or quake, which is where their name comes from. I could spend hours watching shimmering leaves flutter in the sunshine 鈥� truly, nothing is more magical. I feel calmer just thinking about it.

Aspens play an important role in the ecosystem

Aspens are not only gorgeous but they鈥檙e also scientifically fascinating 鈥� and as a self-described nerd, that鈥檚 another reason why I adore them so much. Since summers in the mountains are so short, aspen seeds often don鈥檛 have enough time to germinate. Instead, the trees send out suckers from their roots, which eventually spring up into new mature trees. Because of this unique reproduction method, all of the aspen trees in a particular patch are clones of one another 鈥� identical twins that share an interconnected root network. In neighboring Utah, a stand of cloned aspens called  is one of the largest living organisms on the planet, with around 40,000 trees spread across 106 acres (43 hectares).

And because aspens love the sun, they can thrive where other trees would shrivel up and die, including areas that have been burned by wildfires. Once enough aspen trees flourish, they provide much-needed dappled shade that allows other plants to grow. Moose and elk like to snack on aspen leaves and bark, and the trunks provide a nesting habitat for woodpeckers and other birds. On a camping trip a few years ago, I watched a moose skillfully strip the leaves from branch after branch in an aspen grove.

The best time to see Colorado鈥檚 aspens

Colorado鈥檚 aspens put on a rolling show from about mid-September to mid-October, though the exact timing depends on the weather. The trees at the highest elevations begin to change colors first, followed by those at progressively lower and lower elevations.

Visit pretty much any Colorado mountain town during that window 鈥� Aspen, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Silverthorne, Leadville, Winter Park 鈥� and you鈥檒l likely see at least a few stands of aspens that are still gold. I also recommend planning a road trip along one of , many of which are conveniently equipped with charging stations for electric vehicles.