LeafQuest: Mapping RI’s Best Foliage

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

GoLocalProv Features Team

leafquest

Map and peep: LeafQuest

It's a wonderful mash-up of everyone's favorite mapping Web site and everyone's favorite fall activity. It's LeafQuest, a MapQuest series that helps leaf peepers all across the continent spot (and get directions to!) the best foliage viewing to be had.

So where does LeafQuest say the best leaves are in Rhode Island?

Little Compton

For LeafQuest, historic Little Compton's commons may have barely changed in 300 years, but those sugar maples and red maples that "dramatically frame stone walls and centuries-old cemeteries" are in high-change mode this fall and putting what it calls "the quaint factor" in high gear.

Glocester

It's not clear which Rhode Islanders call this area the Glocester Loop, as LeafQuest asserts, but it's still a fantastic place to catch leaves, and they're right to call it out. "Visitors here pass through quaint New England towns such as Chepachet, Scituate and North Foster, seasonally ablaze with fall colors on beech, red maple and poplar trees." LQ recommends a square route that traverses Route 44 east-west to the north, Route 94 north-south to the west, Route 14 east-west to the south, and 295 north-south to the east.

Newport

Here, LeafQuest recommends starting at the appropriately named mansion The Elms, and following Bellevue Avenue for what LeafQuest calls "eye-popping colors on European beeches, American yellowwoods, horsechestnuts and dozens of other unique and impressive fall colors set against some of the most photogenic residences on the planet."

Want to play around and get the maps for the leaves? Check out LeafQuest, here.