LEAF PEEPIN’ THIS FALL
When we’re not house hunting around town, you’ll find the Connect Idaho team exploring the outdoors. We have a list of places in ID to go leaf peepin’ on foot, on bike, and of course in the car, top-down, radio on!
The City of Trees
Why overthink it? Boise is called the “City of Trees” for a reason, and that reason becomes abundantly clear come October. While the dense green foliage adorning the city provides welcome shaded refuge from the summer heat, the trees are most noticeably beautiful 
once the temperatures begin to drop. Whether it’s an afternoon spent on a patio in Hyde Park, a lazy bike ride along the Greenbelt, or even a hike in the foothills, it is impossible to not be influenced by the calming presence that the warm colors add to the city. Fall colors can be enjoyed from any part of Boise, my favorite places to get out and see the changing leaves are:
- Boise River Greenbelt accessed from the Boise Whitewater Park.
- Five Mile Gulch Trail accessed from Shaw Mountain Road.
Early Fall Colors
If you’re ready to get out and do some leaf-peeping or if you prefer to pair your yellow-leaved views with dramatic mountain peaks, head into the alpine zone. The conditions at high elevation usually trigger the shedding of leaves earlier in the year. Here, you can find the electric yellows of aspen, the yellow-orange of Rocky Mountain willows, and the reds of Indian paintbrush carpeting the forest floor.
Some of my favorite locations to find fall colors in the alpine zone include:
- Alice Lake, Sawtooth Wilderness, access from the Tin Cup Trailhead at Pettit Lake.
- Louie Lake, Payette National Forest, access from the Louie Lake Trailhead at Boulder Meadows Reservoir.
- Mores Mountain Loop, Boise National Forest, access from the Mores Mountain Loop Trail near the Shafer Butte campground.
Variety in the Valleys
Later in the fall (early-to-mid-October), as the leaves change colors at lower elevations, the real show begins. Homogenous greens become a mix of mustard yellow from the 
cottonwoods, cherry red from the maples, and burnt orange from the oaks. The ample supply of water and sunlight in the valleys leads to a diverse blend of deciduous trees with a greater mixture of colors than at higher elevations. This is a time of year where I like to go for a drive and simply go where the colors lead me. Some of my favorite autumn drives include:
- Middlefork Road through Crouch.
- Highway 55 to Cascade.
- Pine-Featherville Road through Featherville.
SOURCE: Sam Brockway worked in partnership with Visit Idaho to create this Travel Tip.
Sam Brockway is an outdoor/travel photographer based in Boise, who also works for Ada County as a Program & Education Specialist. He moved to Idaho in 2014, and immediately become enamored with the endless outdoor access and tight-knit community that Boise offers. In his travels throughout the American West, Sam has been able to do editorial and commercial photography work for a variety of apparel companies, gear manufacturers, and tourism agencies. In the coming years, Sam hopes to chip away at his seemingly endless list of outdoor destinations he hopes to reach in Idaho.
