2020 Fall Foliage: Leaves Beginning To Turn In Western MD

MARYLAND — In western Maryland, a few spots of foliage are starting to display blazing reds, vibrant oranges and sunny yellows this week as the air felt a bit cooler and Canadian geese returned. Viewing Mother Nature can be a safe way to get out of the house during the coronavirus pandemic, especially since many annual fall festivals have been canceled.

The weekly 2020 Maryland Fall Foliage Report issued this week said pockets in western Maryland are starting to show splotches of brilliant color. Foliage in Garrett and Allegany counties begins to turn in late September and peaks toward the middle of October, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

“We are still just seeing subtle splashes of color; however, with bright sunny days and cool nights (we’ve had frost every morning since Friday), we may be in for a good display in a couple more weeks,” said Melissa Nash, Garrett project manager with the Maryland Forest Service, in the report.

Cold overnight temperatures and warm sunny days this week at Rocky Gap State Park in Allegany County came with the beginning of color change, said Julia Musselwhite, assistant supervisor at Rocky Gap State Park in Flintstone. Hikers and mountain bikers on the Lakeside Loop Trail will spot patches of red and orange along the shoreline and dotting the mountainside.

At Cunningham Falls and Gambrill state parks, Melissa Carson said the black gum trees along Gambrill Park Road are showing early autumn color, and the dogwoods around day use areas of the parks are also turning.

"The real show stopper right now in Frederick County is the goldenrod blooming," Carson said. "The pollinator garden throughout the Cunningham Falls William Houck Area Campground is also affording camera-worthy fall foliage.”

Our state offers some stunning vistas, including several in state parks suggested by Visit Maryland:

• The C&O Canal National Historic Park offers numerous hiking options, such as the strenuous Billy Goat Trail for advanced hikers. The trail rewards hikers with vistas of the surging Potomac River flanked by forests bursting with color.
• Elk Neck State Park located on a peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the Elk River combines colorful forests with sandy beaches for great viewing. From the Turkey Point parking lot off Route 272 South, it's an easy one-mile walk to the historic 1833 Turkey Point Lighthouse atop a 100-foot bluff at the southern tip of the Elk Neck Peninsula. Climb 35 feet to its top for a spectacular view of the Bay waters and brilliant fall foliage.
• Patapsco Valley State Park, covering 32 miles of the Patapsco River in Howard County, offers great fall foliage views from the comfort of your car if that's a better fit for you. Drive to Valley Overlook in the Hollofield area right off Route 40. From there you can venture into Ellicott City's Main Street, which has shops and restaurants open even as it recovers from fatal August floods.
• In the heart of Baltimore County's horse country, Oregon Ridge Park near Cockeysville has hiking trails that showcase a tree-scape of yellow, orange and red.
• Swallow Falls State Park in Garrett County is located nine miles north of Oakland and contains part of the Youghiogheny River, which flows along the park's borders, passing through shaded rocky gorges and creating rippling rapids, and Muddy Creek Falls, a 53-foot waterfall. The 1 1/4 mile trail through Swallow Falls guides hikers to Western Maryland's breath-taking scenery.
• Other areas to visit close to the Baltimore-Washington metro area: Gwynnbrook Wildlife Management Area in Owings Mills, Baltimore County; Sugar Loaf Mountain Natural Resource Area in southern Frederick County; Seneca Creek State Park just southwest of Gaithersburg; and Dierssen Wildlife Management Area situated between the C&O Canal and the Potomac River in Montgomery County, offering first-rate opportunities for waterfowl watching and quiet interludes for strollers along the Canal Tow Path.

The updated Fall Foliage Prediction Map from SmokyMountains.com provides peak leaf change predictions for the entire continental United States.

In Maryland, the week of Oct. 26 looks good for a trip into the great outdoors.

The major factors that determine the fall foliage peak are sunlight, precipitation, soil moisture and temperature. The map takes in 50,000 predictive data sets, then churns out a county-by-county analysis of when the fall peak will occur, according to SmokyMountains.com co-founder David Angotti, an expert on statistics.