Star of the screen, and of dreams, New York's Central Park presents the perfect backdrop for a stroll or row in the fall.
THINK you have to road-trip to the countryside to see fall leaves changing color? Think again: Some of the best places to spot those gorgeous hues are in urban areas -- yes, right in the heart of them. Your local city park can be a great leaf-viewing venue. Here are some of the major ones around the country, along with some surprises.
Central Park (New York City)
The scene in "When Harry Met Sally" where the title characters discuss their recurring sex dreams is as famous for its backdrop as its content: Autumn in Manhattan is almost synonymous with the words "Central" and "Park." The color here is unparalleled in the city. Planted by park designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux with fall in mind, the maples, oaks and elms create a rich panorama of reds, oranges and golds. (Brooklyn's Prospect Park, also designed by Olmsted and Vaux, merits honorable mention for its fall color.)
Some of the park's best leaf-viewing destinations include the reservoir, the Literary Walk (on the east edge near 66th Street) and Belvedere Castle (mid-park at 79th Street), which provides a panoramic view of color from its top. (More top-down views of the park can be gleaned from Rockefeller Center's Top of the Rock observation deck or from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's rooftop sculpture court.) For smaller crowds, meander to the very northern tip from West 100th Street past the pool, working your way up to Harlem Meer. Note: Leaf color can peak in the 843-acre park anywhere between the last weeks of October and the last weeks of November, depending on the climate.
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The foliage of Boston Common, and its neighbor, the Boston Public Garden, are signatures of the new season in the Northeast.
Boston Common and Boston Public Garden (Boston)
When most Americans think fall foliage, they immediately think of the Northeast, which arguably has the country's most dramatic fall colors. Long drives up the Maine coast, through New Hampshire and Vermont typically dominate the agenda.
But what about the cities? Steal away to the country's oldest park, Boston Common, or its neighbor, the nation's first public botanical garden, Boston Public Garden, downtown around Oct. 15. The week after that is when the trees should be at their peak (there are over 600 varieties in the Public Garden). The famed Swan Boats may not be in operation (they stopped running in late September), but there's plenty of leaf-peeping to be done from land along the Public Garden's pathways.
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