Texas May Miss Out on Its Fall Foliage Peak

Texas trees are well-known procrastinators, so we have plenty of time before the autumn leaves reach their peak in early November.  We have to ask though; do the leaves here actually turn to a pretty orange and brown, or do they simply turn a lighter shade of green and fall off?

While the rest of the country is starting to reach a fall foliage peak, we're still looking at mostly green trees in Texas.  I have a huge Bradford Pear tree in my front yard, and every year I wait for the leaves to turn a pretty orangish autumn color, and every year I'm surprised when the color seems to go from green to light green before the leaves completely dry up, turn brown, and fall off.  Maybe this year I'll learn that I don't live in New Hampshire.

Texas leaves are great at creating a to-do list and giving us big piles to rake, even if they're not the best at giving us the perfect orange and tan backdrop for fall photos.  But there is hope.

Only In Your State says "autumn in Texas is wildly underrated," and the colors here do change and we have some of the most "breathtaking" colors ever seen.  Several of our parks (and perhaps your house) will be looking amazing.

The best times to view fall foliage will be in mid-October, according to Only In Your State, and they suggested these places as the best ones to soak up the views and take some pictures:

Garner State Park (Concan)
Lost Maples State Natural Area (Vanderpool)
Daingerfield State Park (Daingerfield)
Dinosaur Valley State Park (Glen Rose)
Lake Bob Sandlin State Park (Pittsburg)

How about East Texas making the list!  From mid-October to mid-November in Pittsburg, the sweetgum, hickory, and red maple trees are the ones that we'll see with the most brilliant color turns, and there are places to hike, bike, fish, and picnic to truly make the most of season.  It looks like a red maple tree the thing to have in the front yard to the ultimate color change this time of year.

No matter what color the leaves are when they drop, it's always fun to fall into a huge pile of them.  We're never too grown up for that.