Maine Foliage Report: 10/16/2008
Now Peak Time to View Foliage Along Maine’s Coastline
AUGUSTA, Maine – Peak foliage color will cover southern Maine and all coastal locations during the next seven days according to the Department of Conservation’s final fall foliage report of the season.
Forest rangers are observing peak color along the coastline from Kittery to Eastport (Zones 1 and 2), and over interior locations from Sebago Lake to Augusta and Bangor (Zones 3 and 4)). Leaf drop in these regions is currently moderate, or less than 50 percent.
A colorful drive for the weekend is the recently designated Evans Notch Scenic Byway following 60 miles of Route 113 from Standish in southern Cumberland County to Gilead and the White Mountain National Forest in Oxford County.
Route 17 between Augusta and Rockland is now lined with spectacular foliage, and the colors are at their best along the Park Loop Road inside Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island.
Foliage color has begun to turn past peak in the western mountain towns of Rangeley, Farmington and Carrabassett Valley (Zone 5), but there are still plenty of leaves to look at. Leaf drop is now greater than 70 percent across far northern Maine (Zones 6 and 7).
Blue Hill’s 3rd Annual Foliage Food and Wine Festival (www.bluehillpeninsula.org) is October 16-19, and the city of Hallowell’s annual Fall Festival (www.hallowell.org) happens October 17-19.
To provide the most accurate foliage information, Department of Conservation rangers report statewide conditions here once a week during foliage season. Be sure to sign up here to receive the weekly reports by email or RSS feed.
Foliage fans can also submit their best Maine foliage photographs to this site’s Photo Gallery. One image is featured on the site each week, and all submissions are considered for the gallery archive.
Press contact: Kevin Gove, Nancy Marshall Communications, Email: kgove@marshallpr.com, Phone: (207) 623-4177.
