Autumn in New England: 6 states pack big color, major history, in small area

New England packs a lot of U.S.A. in a little corner of America. 

Its six states combined would rank only 18th among the 50 states. 

Visitors driving north up Interstate 95 can leave New York – not New England – and drive clear across Connecticut and Rhode Island, north through Massachusetts, zip through coastal New Hampshire and arrive in southern Maine in just five hours. 

That’s five states, 10% of all of them, in a single afternoon, missing only the sixth New England state — beautiful, rural Vermont. 

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There’s plenty to see along the way. Among the options are plenty of coastlines, the sites that gave birth to the United States and spectacular autumn foliage. 

Here is one must-see site in these six New England states. 

Connecticut – Mystic Seaport

America’s largest maritime museum brings the nation’s sailing heritage to life today with its historic New England oceanfront village, exhibits, period arts and crafts, and vessels such as the Charles W. Morgan, the world’s last remaining wooden whale ship.

The area is still essential to the nation’s maritime heritage today. 

The U.S. Navy submarine fleet is headquartered a few miles west in Groton, where visitors can explore the USS Nautilus and Submarine Force Museum.

Maine – Acadia National Park

Sunrise over Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine.  (Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The majestic park offers the most spectacular example of New England’s famously rugged rocky coast.

The Atlantic Ocean gives way to a granite shoreline, then sprawling pinewood forests and stunning terrain highlighted by Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak on the eastern seaboard.

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Visitors also experience Maine’s unique downeast culture — complete with its own curious accent.

It offers a postcard landscape of lobster boats anchored in snug coves, quaint coastal villages of artists and boat builders, with havens for rock climbers, snowmobilers and ice fishermen.

Massachusetts – Minute Man National Historical Park

The Minuteman Statue in Lexington, Mass. is meant to depict Captain John Parker, who led the outnumbered Lexington militia against the British regulars on April 19, 1775. The ensuing skirmish, the “shot heard ’round the world,” ignited the American Revolution. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)

This serpentine park meandering through woodlands and town squares west of Boston tells the heroic tale of April 19, 1775, when 80 armed American civilians stood their ground on Lexington Common as 700 British troops, agents of the most powerful king in the world, pressed down upon them.

The Redcoats were looking to capture local munitions and rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. “Throw down ye arms,” a British officer commanded. 

The outnumbered Americans did not surrender their arms. The “shot heard ‘round the world” rang out — and the American Revolution had begun.

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The Lexington minutemen were quickly overrun, eight of them killed; but they had bought time as the call to arms spread across the countryside. The growing American force at Concord a few miles west greeted the British and turned them back. 

Soon, thousands of colonists chased the Redcoats all the way back to Boston, decimating their ranks along the way. “What a Glorious Morning for America,” the street signs of Lexington still read today.

New Hampshire – Mount Washington

Mount Washington in New Hampshire in autumn.  (Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The centerpiece of the Presidential Range of the White Mountains is nothing less than the tallest peak in the northeast (6,288 feet). More famously, Mount Washington habitually witnesses the globe’s most severe weather — due to its elevation and its location at the convergence of several major storm patterns.

Mount Washington’s brutal wind and cold is proclaimed locally as a testament to the hearty nature of “Live Free or Die” state residents. The summit held the record for highest wind speed ever recorded (231 mph) for several decades and reached a record low temperate of -50 degrees Fahrenheit in January 1885. 

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The Mount Washington Observatory recorded a wind chill of -103 degrees as recently as 2004. 

The mountain today is a popular attraction for tourists, who ascend the top via hiking trail, precarious auto road or popular cog railway.

Rhode Island – Newport Mansions

The Breakers, built in 1895 as a summer estate by the Vanderbilt family, one of the famous mansions in Newport, Rhode Island.  (Tim Graham/Getty Images)

The wealth of the Gilded Age springs to life in Newport, where the nation’s titans of 19th-century industry built ostentatious summer homes on the cliffs where scenic Narragansett Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.

The Breakers, owned by railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt II, is probably the most spectacular, built of limestone in the ornate style of an Italian palazzo. Newport’s legacy as a playground of wealthy lives on today around its charming and busy New England downtown waterfront. 

The city is home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame and hosted the America’s Cup, the world’s premier sailing race, for decades.

Vermont – Lake Champlain

Taftsville covered bridge at Taftsville in Vermont.  (John Greim/Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The “Sixth Great Lake” sits on the border of New York and is best explored from the quintessential New England college town of Burlington. 

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It has loomed large in both Native and European American history. 

Lake Champlain divided the Mohawks to the west and Abenaki to the east, while British and continental forces fought for control of the 107 mile-long lake throughout the American Revolution.

MInuteman statute, Lexington, Massachusetts’ covered bridge, Taftsville, Vermont; sunrise over Acadia National Park, Maine. (H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images; John Greim/Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images; Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Lake Champlain today is a perfect place to enjoy the pristine wilderness and especially the autumn foliage of northern New England — or to search for Champy. 

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The mysterious Loch Ness monster-like creature was first known to the Abenaki, allegedly witnessed by French explorer Samuel de Champlain himself, and reported by dozens of other witnesses in the centuries since.