Fall To The Max

This Fall Foliage Map Ensures Peak Peeping

Want to peep some fall foliage? This map will tell you when and where to find the best changing leaves.

So it’s fall, time to break out the yearly ironic social media sharing of Mr. Autumn Man, tuck into sweater weather, and brace yourself for decorative gourd season. The air is getting crisp, you can wear baggy clothes that hide our natural human inclination to pack on some pounds for the long cold winter ahead, hot chocolate is always a good idea, and we can even hate on pumpkin spice everything while secretly kind of liking the coffee. Also, it's a proven fact that listening to The Shins' "New Slang" in the brisk fall air makes it 27 percent better than it already is (not an actual proven fact).

But everyone knows that when it comes to really basking in autumnal glory, you need color.

Brilliant color, the kind that only nature can make with sugar and photosynthesis and pixie dust and whatever else is happening when normally stoic trees go all red and orange and yellow in a final celebration before dying until spring. Thanks to climate change it’s getting harder and harder to pinpoint the exact best time to pack up a picnic lunch and road trip to the woods for peak saturation, but don’t worry--the good folks at smokymountains.com have developed an interactive foliage map to ensure you don’t miss a single iota of epic Instagramming.

Just slide the lever on the bottom to see the best projected dates to suggest taking your date into the forest without immediately seeming like a serial killer, and leave the rest up to Mother Nature’s magic.

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James Joiner

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