When it comes to foliage, the northeastern United States attracts the masses. With millions of people driving from hubs like Boston, New York and Philadelphia, hikers are looking to step up to some of the finest vantage points around during Mother Nature’s annual colorful show.

New Hampshire’s White Mountains are glorious in fall. One popular spot recommended by the Appalachian Mountain Club is the hike up Mount Willard in Crawford Notch. Size doesn’t matter on this one as the 3.2 mile round-trip moderate hike up this 2,815-foot spur through northern hardwoods, birch, spruce and fir yields incredible views at the end where a ledge is a fine perch to view the notch and wiggling Route 302 on the horizon. The trailhead is a busy place, as it’s by a scenic railroad that chugs to the mountain pass from North Conway and steps from the AMC’s Highland Center. outdoors.org

The show in Stowe, Vermont made it on TripAdvisor’s top 10 fall foliage destinations in the United States. Mount Mansfield is a prime location, particularly for those who enjoy driving up the toll road to the top. But hikers can make the trek under their own steam. The strenuous 5.6 mile round-trip undertaking up the 4,393-foot peak from Underhill State Park using Eagles Cut, CCC Road, Sunset Ridge Trail and the storied Long Trail serves up outstanding vistas to Lake Champlain, New York’s Adirondacks, Canada and more. According to the Green Mountain Club, about 40,000 hikers trek to the top annually. Be one of them. greenmountainclub.org

Climbing Giant Mountain in New York’s Adirondacks is a giant undertaking for many. It is one of the region’s 46 four thousand footers (no. 12) at 4,627 feet and is quite a challenge during the 8 mile round trip odyssey. The peak offers some wild looks at the upstate New York scenery in the Keene Valley not only on its summit but from its Roaring Brook trailhead. Standing tall in the rugged Giant Mountain Wilderness Area, the summit is a stage for jagged cliffs, wild peaks and sparkling bodies of water on the horizon. En route, hikers are mesmerized by the 400-foot-tall Roaring Brook Falls, a fine spot to camp too, along the often steep Roaring Brook Trail. lakeplacid.com

Western Maine’s Burnt Meadow Mountain is definitely an under-the-radar mountain. In Brownfield, the mountain is only 1,575 feet tall but the summit affords outstanding views of the Maine-New Hampshire border region into the White Mountains and the Pine Tree State’s Lake Region. The mountain, scarred from the Great Fires of 1947, has risen from the ashes thanks to the concerned citizens of Friends of Burnt Meadow Mountains. A nearly 4 mile circuit from the Route 160 trailhead is a moderate outing with some stiff portions, but it seems there is respite after each. The mountain’s North Peak is a welcoming place to linger and watch the spectacle called autumn. friendsofburntmeadowmountains.com

Historic New England literary figures Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne have scaled 1,642 foot Squaw Peak on Monument Mountain in the northwest of Massachusetts. Travel in their footsteps to the top where vistas of the Berkshires and New York’s Catskills await. Preserved by The Trustees of Reservations, the Great Barrington hike can be done as a 2.8 mile loop with the Hickey Trail, Squaw Peak Trail and Indian Monument Trail. The story goes that  poet William Cullen Bryant, who lived in Great Barrington from 1815-1825, wrote a poem called “Monument Mountain” about a Mohican maiden, her prohibited love  and her leaping to her death from the cliffs.  thetrustees.org

You can see Connecticut’s sleeping giant lying on his back. The giant is actually a collection of low hills. Miles of trails welcome hikers, swarms of hikers by the way on peak days, to Hamden’s Sleeping Giant State Park north of New Haven. The myriad of trails attract the masses, as the hike is capped off by a handsome stone tower at the top, and views that encompass the nearby New Haven skyline and beyond to shimmering Long Island Sound. The Tower Trail is the path most taken, a 3.2 mile relatively easy hike up Mount Carmel with the tower.
sgpa.org