If you've been putting off your foliage drive this year, here's the honest state of things: for most of Vermont, the peak has already passed. Across the state, somewhere between 40 and 70 percent of the leaves are down, northern hillsides are thinning fast, and the high country is settling into that muted, late-season look. But foliage season doesn't end all at once — and this year, it's ending in the south.
Rutland and Windham counties are still at peak color through October 12, even as Windsor County, just to their north and east, has already tipped past its best. The color line has been marching down the map all week, and right now it's drawn across southern Vermont. What's left is the last strong color of the 2026 season — and it's genuinely strong.
Windham County is where we'd start. Route 9 — the Molly Stark Byway — runs the width of the county and strings together some of the best autumn driving in Vermont. Heading west from Brattleboro, the road climbs through Marlboro to the Hogback Mountain overlook, famous for its hundred-mile view. On a clear day you can see into Massachusetts and New Hampshire from that pull-off, and right now the whole sweep of it is lit up. The view at the top of this page is Hogback in fall — this week, it still looks like that.
From Hogback, drop down into Wilmington, a village tucked into a bowl of hardwood hills where Routes 9 and 100 cross, then take the back roads north. Newfane, the county seat, has one of the most photographed village greens in Vermont — white church, courthouse, and maples doing their October best. Dover, Townshend, and Marlboro sit in the same pocket of late-holding color, and the farm roads between them are the kind of driving that makes people pull over just to look.
Over in Rutland County, look to the valleys. The broad floor along Route 7 — through Pittsford, Rutland, Clarendon, and Wallingford — is where the color is lingering longest. Low ground always turns later and fades slower than the ridges, and the maples along the Otter Creek corridor are still in full color. Out in Castleton, Lake Bomoseen adds water to the picture: on a calm morning, the shoreline hills double themselves in the reflection, and it's hard to say which version looks better.
The higher slopes around Killington have faded first, the way they always do — elevation is the season's earliest deadline, and it has already passed up there. But that's exactly why the southern valleys matter right now. A drive down Route 7 or across Route 4 this week still delivers the whole Vermont autumn package: red barns, white churches, stone walls, and hillsides that haven't gotten the memo that the season is supposed to be over.
One honest caveat: peak in mid-October is a short appointment, measured in days rather than weeks. A single cold front — wind, rain, a hard freeze — can strip a hillside almost overnight, and this time of year there's always one on the way. If you can go, go in the next few days. Mornings and late afternoons give you the best light, and color always looks richest right after a clear, cold night.
Every year, foliage season ends the same way: quietly, from the north, until only the southern hills are still glowing. This week that glow belongs to Rutland and Windham counties. If the peak slipped past you this year, consider this your second chance — in two of the prettiest corners of Vermont, no less.