By Cheri Sicard
Join the team from Keep Your Daydream for a tour of the Top 10 fall foliage RV road trips.
Without a doubt, autumn is one of the most scenic times of year to travel the country, and this handy compilation is sure to inspire some trip planning ideas. With temperatures cooling so you don’t need A/C, but not so much that you need the heater (much), fall is the perfect time for RV travel.
Keep Your Daydream’s Top 11 fall foliage RV road trips (in no particular order)
Be sure to watch the video for details about RVing any of these routes, including interesting stops and points of interest along the way, accompanied by some spectacular fall foliage eye candy. (Side note: I know the video title says Top 10, but I count 11, 12 if you separate out Asheville and Charleston.)
#1 Blue Ridge Parkway: This 469-mile road connects Shenandoah National Park on the north end and the Great Smoky Mountains on the south. This drive takes you on “America’s favorite road.” It’s free, easy to travel, and contains some of the highest peaks east of the Mississippi River. It has some of the most breathtaking scenery imaginable in any season, but especially in autumn when the foliage is ablaze with color.
#2 Asheville, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina: If you want to continue the road trip from #1, this makes a great option just two hours from the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Boasting one of the most dramatic displays of fall colors in the USA, Asheville offers lots of things to see and do like hiking, biking, wine tasting, restaurants, and visits to the historic Biltmore Estate. You’ll find the historic waterfront town of Charleston just four hours away. In addition to amazing autumn scenery, you’ll enjoy lots of great restaurant options here.
#3 Route 100 in Vermont: The quintessential New England fall foliage RV road trip awaits in Vermont. This 216-mile road winds through quaint small towns, farms and farm stands, picture-perfect lakes and waterfalls, and, of course, lots of picturesque fall foliage.
#4 Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire: This route beautifully displays New Hampshire’s White Mountains, is just 34 miles long, and winds through the White Mountains National Forest. It is recognized as a National Scenic Byway. The route might be short, but it’s home to lots of great RV campground options.
#5 Pure Michigan: According to our hosts, you can’t go wrong in Michigan as there are fabulous fall foliage views in just about any direction. The video covers some of their favorites.
#6 Aspens in Colorado: Expect to see the Aspens on full colorful display in Colorado in autumn. Our hosts say this is another state, like Michigan, where you pretty much can’t go wrong in the fall. Again, the video shares a few highlights.
#7 Acadia National Park, Maine: One of the few national parks that allow on-leash dogs on the hiking trails, you can enjoy the fall foliage with your best friend here. When you visit in fall, the summer crowds have thinned out, but the scenery is even more breathtaking than ever.
#8 Columbia River Gorge, Oregon: An Instagram icon, this area sports awesome waterfalls, world-class hiking, and fall scenery West Coast style. Our hosts suggest using Portland as a home base. If you do, here’s a terrific, affordable campground on Sauvie Island, where you’ll also find corn mazes, pumpkin stands, and other fun fall activities.
#9 Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico: Like in Colorado, aspens are the star of the fall foliage in the Southwest.
#10 Mount Rainier to Glacier National Park: Peak fall colors arrive in the Pacific Northwest in early October, so plan accordingly.
Do you have other great fall foliage RV road trip recommendations? Be sure to leave your thoughts and favorite fall destinations and sights in the comments below.
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RVDT2715
We are heading to NH this October. I can’t wait for the fall colors. We could never take this trip when I was a teacher, but now I’m retired. Thanks for the driving tours we should definitely do.
One of my favorite routes is to start at the intersection of NY Rt 12 and 28 and take NY Route 28 to NY Route 30 to NY Route 86 through the Adirondacks. You go through Old Forge, Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake and end up in Lake Placid. This trip is usually best in late September and early October.
this was one that I was going to add to the list…another route to enjoy the Adirondacks would be to get off of rt 81 north of Watertown on route 3 to Lake Placid and connect to Saranac lake from there. We then loop down through Old Forge. A favorite drive for my wife during her chemo treatments, a break from the process.
We live in CO and usually go to Mueller SP in late September/early October for Aspen viewing and hiking. This year though we are going to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway in October. Thanks for other ideas!
Minnesota’s Mississippi River Valley along the border with Wisconsin all the way to its headwaters at Itasca State Park just north of Park Rapids. Many different geographical landscapes from the steep hills and bluffs of SE MN, covered with maple, oak, birch and other hardwoods ablaze with color to more flatlands and tamarack of the north. Bald Eagles and all kinds of wildlife abound.
The video mentioned the drive between Telluride and Ouray, Colorado. One of our favorite aspen views along that route (CO 62) is from Dallas Divide, where you can get a photo of a scenic split-rail fence in the foreground with the aspen-covered slopes of 14,000′ Mount Sneffels and Wilson Peak in the background. The most popular aspen-viewing route in Colorado, however, is the gravel Kebler Pass Road (CR 12) between Crested Butte and CO 133 near Paonia Reservoir. But it’s best to drive it on a weekday because weekends can have bumper-to-bumper traffic jams!
Thank you for sharing these locations, Cheri! Have a great weekend and safe travels!