Fall Colors in New Jersey

I take a walk down a country road almost every day after lunch.

Even back in the summer I knew it would be glorious stretch of roadway to experience the fall colors in New Jersey firsthand.

The New England states have a reputation for having glorious leaf displays every autumn, but New Jersey can hold its own. And that seemed like a very Jersey thing to say.

Hmm. No.

That wasn’t aggressive enough. I’ll have to work on it! Clearly, I’m not a New Jersey native.

I’m just a girl who appreciates the fall colors in New Jersey.

There are days when I don’t see one car while on my walk.

It is just me and the deer. Sometimes a squirrel or ten thousand.

Oh, and I see snakes from time to time too.

Then other days it is like everyone has someplace pressing to be and I’m glad I’m not them.

I do give them a wave though. It seems like the neighborly thing to do, but really I’m just thanking them for not running me over in their haste to get wherever they are going. I live to walk another day.

You can’t tell from these pictures, but there is a little stream that runs down the left side of this road.

It makes the most peaceful gurgling sounds and I’ve idly watched its water levels ebb and flow the past few months.

At the bottom of this hill that stream empties into a creek called Spruce Run. That, in turn, empties into Spruce Run Reservoir.

I had to wait a good long while this year, mid-October, before the leaves really started to change colors in New Jersey.

You know patience is not my forte.

Not that I really want to hurry autumn along.

Once the leaves drop it looks a little under-dressed around these parts. By under-dressed I mean a sad, barren wasteland.

Okay, that was melodramatic.

I should be able to find beauty in all the seasons. I do! I promise. I am just biased toward the seasons that include leaves and short-sleeved shirts.

Before winter lays heavy upon us, there is this golden witching hour when the fall colors in New Jersey are indescribable.

Most people refer to it as October.

I wish you all were here with me then because no camera could capture what was happening on every hillside, in every valley of this state.

I was making excuses to take longer walks and to drive places I didn’t need to drive because the color show the trees were putting on was just incredible.

The fall colors in New Jersey reminded me of the Robert Frost poem titled Nothing Gold Can Stay.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

I know we have to go through this process every year.

If the seasons never changed we would take them for granted.

At least, I would.

But between you and me, I’m rooting for these last leaves that are still hanging on!

I hope you enjoyed autumn in your part of the world as much as I enjoyed mine.

I am so happy and grateful for all the opportunities we have had to live in and travel to various parts of this country and the world. There is so much beauty to behold. And to think, I was dead set against moving to New Jersey. Sometimes it is good to be wrong.

Don’t tell Handy Husband I said that.

P.S. I made an animated gif of the photos I took. Hope it works for you on your screen.

It is hard to compete with fall leaves, but here are some other posts you might enjoy! 

Cream Tomato Parmesan Soup in the Slow Cooker

Travel: Niagara Falls in Winter

Fall Dining Room