Three Trails Worth the Drive: October 14–21, 2026

Three colour fronts are running at once this week, and they are at different stages. Maine's forest service closed the 2026 foliage season on October 14 with the Downeast zone, the one that holds Bar Harbor, at peak. 1 Pennsylvania's conservation department names the northern Poconos among the three best places in the state for colour in its report covering October 8–14. 2 West Virginia's tourism office puts Fayette County's peak between mid and late October. 3

Each of the three trails below turns on a single rule. Acadia's summit road needs a timed reservation. Ricketts Glen's waterfall trail shuts for the winter. New River Gorge's bridge closes to traffic at 7 a.m. on Saturday.

One thing settles the day in all three places. Friday is wet. Saturday arrives behind the front, cold and windy. Sunday is sunny in Maine, in Pennsylvania and in West Virginia alike. 131418

The Cadillac North Ridge Trail is an out-and-back to the highest point in the park and on the eastern seaboard. The route leaves the Park Loop Road, climbs a granite slope into woods, then turns steeper and more exposed for its last third. Blue blazes and Bates cairns mark the way. 4

At the top, a fork carries hikers right for a final tenth of a mile into the summit parking lot. The summit has restrooms and a gift shop, and the paved Summit Loop walk runs half a mile. No bus serves the top, so the descent is back down the same trail. 410

This is the week the coast turns. Maine's Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry published the last report of its season on October 14, with zone 2, Downeast Maine and Bar Harbor, at peak and leaf drop moderate. The mid-coast zone and southern zone were at peak too. 1

Two rules apply, depending on how you plan to reach the top. Driving the Cadillac Summit Road takes a vehicle reservation, $6, required from May 20 through October 25, 2026 and sold only online at Recreation.gov. Seventy percent of them are released at 10 a.m. Eastern, two days ahead of the date. A sunrise reservation carries a 90-minute entry window and is limited to one per vehicle every seven days. 11

Walking up needs no reservation. The trailhead is a small pull-off on the Park Loop Road just past the start of the one-way section toward Sand Beach, and the park warns that it is extremely limited and often fills early. 4

The entrance pass is separate and required year round, and the park is cashless. 5 Non-US residents aged 16 and over pay an extra $100 each unless they arrive with an Annual or America the Beautiful pass; the non-resident annual pass costs $250. 5

Park facilities are closing around this weekend. The Cadillac reservation check station ends on October 25, Blackwoods Campground on October 19, and Hulls Cove Visitor Center on October 31. The Park Loop Road stays open to December 1. 12

The forecast point two miles southeast of the park sits at 666 feet and was last updated at 12:31 p.m. EDT on October 14. Friday brings rain at 51°F and 90 percent, with gusts to 32 mph. Saturday is mostly sunny at 45°F on a northwest wind near 23 mph gusting to 37. Sunday is sunny at 48°F, and Monday sunny at 54°F. 13 Cadillac's summit stands 1,530 feet, so the top runs colder and windier than those numbers. 10

Best plan: take Sunday, park at the pull-off early and walk the North Ridge Trail, or buy the $6 reservation the moment the two-day window opens if you would rather drive. Remember that vehicles over 21 feet, including bike racks and hitch attachments, are barred from the summit road. Go on Sunday with a windproof layer, a card rather than cash, and a headlamp in case the descent runs late.

Ricketts Glen holds the Glens Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark, and the Falls Trail System is the way through it: 21 wild, free-flowing waterfalls dropping through rock-strewn clefts. They run from 11 feet to the 94-foot Ganoga Falls. 6

The park counts 22 named waterfalls in all, and the twenty-second, Adams Falls, sits on the one-mile Evergreen Trail above the glens. 67

The state measures the full loop, both glens together, at 7.2 miles and rates it most difficult. A 3.2-mile circuit on the Highland Trail, taking the Glen Leigh and Ganoga Glen sides, still reaches most of the waterfalls. 6

DCNR's own caution reads plainly: hikers on the Falls Trail should be in good physical condition, wear sturdy boots, and expect wet, slippery and steep going. The terrain descends steeply through the glens. 6

Pennsylvania's colour report for October 8–14 says recent cold nights pushed foliage to peak in the northern tier. It names the northern Poconos, along with the Laurel Highlands, as the best places in the state right now. 2

The park runs sunrise to sunset every day of the year, and day-use areas close at dusk. Bookings for day-use and overnight facilities go through the state reservation system at 888-PA-PARKS. 7

Winter is the real gate here. DCNR closes the Falls Trail System in winter to everyone except properly equipped ice climbers and hikers, so this is the closing stretch of the year for an ordinary hiking day in the glens. 6

Parking sits at the glens trailhead, where the park has also installed a two-plug electric-vehicle charging station, and at the Lake Rose trailhead. Download the park map before leaving, because cell service is unpredictable in and around Pennsylvania state parks. 7

Approach matters too. The section of PA 487 from Red Rock to the Lake Jean area is a very steep road, and the park asks heavy trailer units to come in from Dushore instead. 7

The National Weather Service point four miles north of the park sits at 1,883 feet and was last updated at 2:30 a.m. EDT on October 14. Friday is showers and a possible thunderstorm at 69°F, 90 percent. Saturday is mostly sunny at 44°F and breezy, with a low of 30°F that night. Sunday is sunny at 56°F, and Monday mostly sunny at 60°F. 14

Best plan: take Sunday, start from the Lake Rose trailhead to reach the glens sooner, and book a picnic pavilion or a campsite through the state line if you want the whole weekend. Go on Sunday with boots that grip wet rock, a map on the phone and on paper, and enough daylight for 7.2 miles.

The Endless Wall Trail crosses rich forest, bridges Fern Creek, then zig-zags along the cliff edge above the New River, close to 1,000 feet below. Diamond Point is the turnaround most hikers take, making a two-mile out-and-back from the Fern Creek trailhead. 8 Walking the full trail to the Nuttall trailhead adds a half-mile back along the road. 8

Two neighbours are worth knowing about. The Long Point Trail covers 1.6 miles one way, rated moderate, to a rock outcrop that frames both the gorge and the New River Gorge Bridge. The Kaymoor Miners Trail, two miles, drops to a coal mine site. 1516

Saturday, October 17, is Bridge Day. BASE jumpers step off the New River Gorge Bridge, the bridge closes to traffic, and the festival is free. West Virginia's tourism office puts Fayette County's foliage peak between mid and late October and calls Bridge Day the way to kick off leaf peeping at the gorge. 317

Bridge Day closes the bridge, not the trails. Route 19 shuts at 7 a.m. and reopens at 5 p.m., with a commercial detour onto I-79 and I-64/77 from 5:30 a.m. Drivers park at one of six park-and-ride lots and ride a shuttle in; the event's own pages give that fare as $3 in one place and $5 in another, and take cash only. 917

Read that as a planning rule: nobody crosses the gorge by car between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday. Hike the side you are sleeping on. US-19 stays open to local traffic south of the bridge from Route 16, which is how both the Long Point and Fern Creek trailheads are reached. 817

Bridge Day also bans dogs, coolers, folding chairs and backpacks; clear bags are the only ones allowed through the gate. 9

Parking is the second gate. The Fern Creek lot is small and frequently fills, and the park warns that cars left on Lansing-Edmond Road may be towed; the Nuttall trailhead half a mile further along is the fallback. 8

One dated closure matters for anyone extending the weekend. The upper half of the Kaymoor Miners Trail, from Kaymoor Top down to the mine site, is closed Monday through Thursday until November 19, 2026 for rehabilitation, and open Friday through Sunday. The park's closure list, last updated September 24, 2026, also keeps the Rend and Church Loop trails shut until about December 2027 and the Keeney's Creek Rail Trail closed above the Conveyor Trail. Cunard Road is open, with a gravel section at its lower end. 16

The Fayetteville forecast point sits at 1,706 feet and was last updated at 1:05 p.m. EDT on October 14. Friday turns showery at 76°F, 90 percent. Saturday carries a 60 percent chance of showers before 8 a.m., then partly sunny at 49°F. Sunday is sunny at 59°F, and Monday sunny at 63°F. 18

Best plan: take Sunday for the rim walk and treat Saturday as the festival day, parking at one of the six lots and riding in with a clear bag and no backpack. Go on Sunday for Diamond Point, and if you want the bridge from below, walk down into the gorge rather than trying to drive Fayette Station Road while the event is on. 9

Choose Cadillac for the best colour on the board: peak foliage in the Bar Harbor zone, a 4.4-mile route to the highest point on the eastern seaboard, and one of the last weekends the summit road reservation system runs. It is the trip that rewards whoever books first. 111

Choose Ricketts Glen for the most reward per mile: 21 waterfalls inside 3.2 miles if you take the short loop, and a trail that closes for the season once the ice arrives. It is the one for a group that wants to see a lot without committing the whole day. 6

Choose New River Gorge for the strangest weekend of the three: a two-mile walk along a cliff edge above a 1,000-foot gorge on the same day the state closes its bridge for a festival. It is the trip for whoever wants the spectacle attached to the hike. 89