Editor’s Note: Photos in this story, along with this month’s cover, were taken by Robin Clutter. Great work, Robin!
While we live in a four-season area, each with its own beauty, my absolute favorite season is fall. The nights start to cool and the afternoon sun burns hot, with color all around the mountaintop. The trees, flowers, bushes, and grasses are preparing for a brilliant show of color, and all you have to do to enjoy it is step outside. The sights, the smells and the sounds of fall are yours for the taking. A simple stroll in your backyard can be as colorful as a crayon box.
While walking in the fall, you can watch the twirling, dancing leaves as they fall to the ground. You might hear the chipmunks and squirrels as they are scurrying around to hide the newly fallen acorns or children playing in the raked-up piles of leaves.
Garrett County and the surrounding counties in West Virginia are perfect places for viewing fall foliage at its best! Fall foliage in Garrett County typically begins changing in late September and reaches peak color around mid-October.
If you like a car or motorcycle ride, instead of walking, grab an apple cider or spiced latte and follow the directions found on https://www.garrettheritage.com/fall-foliage-driving-tours
These self-guided driving tours will highlight the splendor of Garrett County’s fall foliage in both the southern and northern ends of the county. While traveling along some of Maryland’s Scenic Byways, you’ll see the gorgeous colors of fall everywhere you look. Take your time, drive a little slower, and take in the beauty of autumn!
Also, make a day of it on October 17 with the GFBA Fall Driving Tour. Take a scenic ride through Friendsville and Accident with stops at local shops, restaurants,s and businesses along the way. Grab a passport, collect stamps, ps and enter the raffle drawing while enjoying the fall colors. Learn more about participating businesses on page 76.
There is also the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in Cumberland, MD (about an hour’s drive), which offers a top-rated fall foliage train ride through the Allegheny Mountains. Recently, this legendary railroad was voted No. 7 on USA TODAY’s 2026 list of Best Scenic Train Rides. Learn more about tickets and the schedule at https://wmsr.com/
Walk or ride along the streams, rivers, ponds, forests, and trails to view the leaves of many colors. Without green chlorophyll,
other pigments like carotenoids (yellow and orange) and anthocyanins (red and purple) show through. Each color means something different. The foliage transforms into a breathtaking array of colors – scarlet, orange, purple, and gold, blazing yellows, burnt oranges, and rich reds.
You can view the foliage map and see when the peak colors are estimated to be in different areas of Maryland on an interactive map at https://www.explorefall.com/states/maryland.html.
Across the landscape, maples blaze in bright reds, oaks and hickories add warm oranges and yellows, and sycamores glow golden across the rolling hills.
The Sugar Maple is Garrett County’s official county tree and is kept in good company with mixed hardwoods that dominate the landscape. Red and sugar maples are known for vibrant fall colors.
If you think it’s only the tree leaves that explode in color, you’re wrong:
Cinnamon stick ferns turn into brilliant shades of gold, yellow, and copper. This change certainly brightens the woodland forests where they may grow.
The berries from a Jack-in-the-pulpit produce a dense cluster of bright, shiny red berries fruit in late summer and autumn. They are a welcome red spot amongst the green and brown ground of the forest floor.
As the chipmunks, squirrels, white-tailed deer, bears, mice, and rabbits are busy preparing for the cold winter months ahead, the acorns from the mighty oak trees are plentiful and also add color to the fall season.
The burning bush,h which is a deciduous bush known for its brilliant fire engine red fall foliage, is another seasonal favorite. It features dark green summer leaves that turn bright fire-engine red in the fall, plus unique corky “wings” along its branches and small berries.
Broomsedge grass with slender, linear leaves starts bluish-green or medium green in spring and summer, turning a brilliant orange, yellow, copper and tan in the fall and persistent straw-brown through winter.
Little Bluestem is a native warm-season grass that turns a coppery-bronze to deep reddish-purple color by autumn.
Switchgrass provides upright form and airy seed panicles that turn golden-yellow or bright red in fall. The berries from a Jack-in-the pulpit produce a The berries from a Jack-in-the pulpit produce a dense cluster of bright, shiny red berries in the late dense cluster of bright, shiny red berries in the late.
Indian Grass features distinct, feathery golden-bronze plumes that catch the autumn light.
The bright white hydrangea’s petals are sun-kissed and turn soft shades of pink and burgundy, keeping up with fall’s colorful decor.
These colorful leaves, flowers and grasses are just a few of many varieties of foliage that blend in making a trip to our area in the fall a true Autumn Glory.
Also, there are several festivals around our area that celebrate all things fall. Garrett County has the Autumn Glory Festival; Preston County, WV, has the Buckwheat Festival; Leaf Peepers Festival in Davis, WV; and Springs Festival in Springs, PA. These festivals celebrate the bounty that the fall harvest has to offer as well as many local traditions. The bountiful harvest of crops – apples, corn, pumpkins, and buckwheat, just to name a few is being taken from the fields and stored for future use.
One thing is for sure: the view along the way is always a spectacular one!
Written by Robin Clutter.
From the October issue of the Lakefront Magazine.