Foliage And Snoliage In Vermont, 2015

Sunshine lights up trees over
a dirt road in Huntington, Vermont.  

Since everybody else is doing it, I'm going to share some photos I took in what has been a spectacular fall foliage season here in Vermont.

It got off to a late start because of a warm early autumn, but the leaves belatedly put on a show in mid -October.

Then it got cold, and it snowed. Everybody it seems got the coveted "snoliage" photos, which combine snow and brilliant leaves.

Due to scheduling, I wasn't really able to get out to the mountains to get great snoliage landscape photos, but some snow fell on my St. Albans, Vermont property and managed to get some detailed photos.

The photos I'm sharing in this post are in random order taken in western and northern Vermont.

As you scroll down, click on each photo to make them bigger and easier to see. Hope you enjoy them, and please share in the comments section or on social media any great autumn photos you took!

Mount Mansfield, seen from Underhill, Vermont.  

A bit of snow accumulates on maple leaves
in St. Albans, Vermont.

Snow dusts cardinal flowers in my St. Albans, Vermont garden.  

Pumpkins and foliage in Underhill, Vermont

A snow squall obscures foliage in
my St. Albans, Vermont yard.  

Looking Back At This Year's Vermont Fall Foliage

Near Fairfield, Vermont.  

Fall foliage season is all but kaput in Vermont for the season.

There's still a few splashes of nice color, of course, especially in the warmer valleys and right in the heart of towns, cities and villages, where it tends to be a bit milder.

But stick season is upon us, that time of year before the snow but when the trees are all bare, all the leaves are brown and the sky is gray, and you want to go for a walk on an (almost) winters day. (Thanks, Momas and Papas!)

Near Bakersfield,

It was a great season here in Vermont, though. The foliage lasted a long time, because we didn't have a lot of wind and rain and hard frosts.

There were a a lot of sunny, warm days, and a slightly dry August and September seemed to bring out the reds and deep oranges in the trees when October came around.

As I always do, I'll post a few photos of what I came up with for images from this year's season. I'm fascinated by low evening sunlight, dark clouds and bright foliage, so we went heavy on that this year.

Enjoy! (Scroll down to see 'em all)

St. Albans, Vermont.

Pine needles and leaves floating on water,
 West Rutland Vermont 

While Vermont Leaf Peeping, Looking At The Skies, Too

Mount Mansfield, Vermont.  

Vermont is in the midst of its big annual show, the fall foliage season. There are SO many gorgeous photographs of the bright leaves floating around.  It is a very nice, super colorful foliage season.

I'm just as guilty as everyone else as I head out to view the fall leaves. Sometimes I drive around, and sometimes the foliage photos pop out at me in my own yard.

I've also found myself turning my camera to the skies, too, as for some reason we've had some great clouds and great sky patterns, too.

Some examples of the photos are in this post.

The sky Saturday over St. Albans, Vermont.  

Sugar maple leaves in my St. Albans, Vermont yard.  

The sky over St. Albans at sunset on the first
day fall  

Fall foliage in St. Albans, Vermont  

Fall Begins to Fade in Vermont

We had a good, hard freeze last weekend, some rain Sunday, some wind Monday.

 It all means that Vermont's fall foliage season is fading fast.  Last week, I was near Mount Mansfield, the state's highest mountain. The foliage was just past peak, but still beautiful. But the cold, blue clouds and shadows on the slopes told me winter is almost here.

You can see it all in the photos I took. (As always, click on each photo to make them bigger and more viewable.

Vermont Sky Proves Fall Color Not Just in Trees

The sky over Vermont this evening was a perfect counter point to the fall foliage, was just beginning to fade to past peak.

Sunset over Lake Champlain, taken from St. Albans, Vermont
Oct. 15, 2012

As the sun set, the clouds lit up to the same tone of orange and red and yellow that graced Vermont's hillsides this month.

Even before the sun entirely set, the clouds took on a odd pattern and color. It looked fake, like a badly painted theatrical backdrop. And the trees below were the "wrong" color, orange and yellow, making the surroundings look like a different world.

Another view of Oct. 15, 2012
sunset as viewed from a
St. Albans, Vermont hill

A bit earlier in the evening, fall foliage on the ground
and a setting sun helped create "fake" looking colors and
textures in the clouds in this view from Georgia, Vermont
For the record, no photoshopping here.  

A Cloudy But Awesome Vermont Autumn

The fall colors in Vermont this year are above average, in my estimation.  The colors are brighter and more varied than they have been in recent years. The foliage season has also hit about on schedule, not late like last year.

The sky is a different story,  however. There's been a lot of gloom, fog, drizzle, clouds, mist, rain. Luckily the sun has broken through from time to time, and this week is forecast to be sunnier than last.

The cloudiness and gloom has proven, though, that you don't need bright sun to create lots of wonderful foliage pictures. The photos this year tend to be different from the dazzling light you see in the tourist brochures, but that's OK. It's nice to have something different.

I took all these photos in Franklin County, Vermont, in the northwestern part of the state. Click on each pic for a bigger, better view.

More Vermont Fall Foliage

Fall foliage season in Vermont only lasts a short time, but it is always glorious.  After a couple weeks of great color,  the mountains are turning winter gray as the leaves fall. Only the Champlain valley and lowlands in the southern half of Vermont have full color. There's probably only a week or so of decent leaf peeping left.

Golden leaves reflected in a pond being
rippled by a breeze in Richmond, Vermont

We've got another windy rainstorm coming tomorrow night, so more of the foliage will fade. With a dull overcast today, I have a chance to go through a few of the pics I took. Some are traditional landscape photos, some are experiments, like the one I posted last week.

I'll give you a couple examples of what I came up with in this post.  Of course, there are better fall foliage photographers than I, but just going out and shooting is fun, and maybe it will increase my skills further.

Red leaves with a stark gray
background in Richmond, Vermont. 

A hilly autumn landscape near Bakersfield, Vermont.