We will be driving from Toronto to Pelham, NY, leaving on October 8th. The route I got from CAA (our equivalent to AAA) seems to take us along Route 17 for part of the way. Anybody know offhand if we'll be seeing any autumn colours along the way? I've been checking the foliage websites and it doesn't look as though there's much happening yet.

If it were a "typical" fall I'd say by 10/8 you'd see leaves changing. But we're having a beautiful Indian summer right now in NY so hard to say.

Thanks, mclaurie, that's what I figured. Last year in Ontario things stayed almost completely green, and then changed dramatically over one weekend. Maybe we'll be lucky.

Under normal circumstances the trip down through Syracuse to Binghampton and then down Rte 17 should give you some nice foliage (sp?)views. Westchester County itself has alot of maples which also provide good autumn colors.
Grew up in Westchester and went to college in central New York.

When we drive north at that time of year, the leaves are beginning to change, you should see some color.
Pelham is a lovely town with a lot of trees, there will be color there too!

I live in western new york and there are a few leaves already turning colors. The experts say that since its been a wet and cool summer, the leaves will turn earlier than normal so you should get a great show in early october. I you plan to stay at any hotels along the way, book now. Its surprising how fast the roadside motels book up during the autumn.

Wow, that's encouraging! We won't need to book any motels along the way, though; it's about an 8- or 9-hour drive and we'll just do the whole thing in one day. Our "mission" is to take the family bassinet down to my daughter in Pelham who is having her first baby (our 5th grandbaby) in November. Grandbaby #4 has just outgrown it. We know it will be a fun trip; the leaves would be an extra added bonus.

from the THE Record Leaf season set to impress
Nature's most resplendent ceremony of death is on its way, a little behind schedule but full of visual and economic promise.
On this, the day of the autumn equinox, the leaves are turning, which means they're dying, which means they're showing their true colors, which means landscaped carpets of unparalleled beauty ? along with battalions of tourists ? are on their way to the region.
This year's rain-drenched summer has effectively delayed the turning of the leaves by about a week or 10 days, according to weather experts. And Hurricane Isabel didn't touch it.
A delay in the foliage show doesn't necessarily mean we'll get a longer-than-usual colorama, only that we'll have to wait a little longer for it to arrive.
Paul Huth, director of Mohonk Mountain House's Dan Smiley Research Center, says fall foliage comes in three color-coded waves: yellow, red and brown. We're about 10 days to two weeks away from the peak of the first, or yellow, wave, he said yesterday.
"That's when the white ash and particularly birches go ? I'd say they're still about 80 to 90 percent green just now," he said.
Huth said he expects the second, or red, wave, the most popular and dramatic part of the foliage cycle, to arrive on schedule in mid-October. After the maples make their show, the rich browns of the oaks will stage a final display in early November.
You know what to expect after the third wave.
As ever, the length and quality of the upcoming show will depend on meteorological factors that are hard to predict. The one thing no one wants to see is windy and rainy weather when the leaves are at their peak times. That kind of weather is a show-stopper.
Trees shed their leaves as part of their life cycle, to the benefit of the local economy. The chemical decomposition of chlorophyll in once-green leaves is a nearly alchemical phenomenon that changes ostensibly useless stuff into gold for shopkeepers, farmers, wineries and restaurants.
"I can't make a buck off the leaves ? I use them as a lure to bring people here," says Peter Carafano, tourism director for Ulster County.
The leaf-peeping season, as it's known in tourism circles, is the single most concentrated business period of the year, according to Carafano. At its peak in October, you'll have a better chance of being elected governor of California than booking one of the 3,279 motel/lodge/cabin/resort/dude ranch or B&B rooms in the county.
This is the time of year nature-deprived folks from the southern metropolis abandon their concrete hives in order to idle their super-sized SUVs in city-style traffic lineups like the ones you'll find every weekend along Main Street in New Paltz.
Traffic congestion is part of the price paid for successful business in tourist magnets like New Paltz, as Melinda Minervini, manager of Handmade and More, just off Main Street, can tell you.
"Traffic can be a problem," she said, "but we don't hold it against [tourists]."
Why leaves change color
- Seasonal conditions and the resultant chemical changes are the key factors in the timing and coloration of fall foliage. Generally, clear, sunny days and cool nights with temperatures in the 40s bring about the most striking autumn colors.
- Three chemicals within the leaves ? chlorophyll, carotenoids and anthocyanins ? are involved in the annual color change process. As temperatures cool and the days shorten, cells at the base of the leaves disintegrate, blocking passages from the leaves to the branches and causing chlorophyll ? the stuff that makes a leaf green ? to decompose.
- As the chlorophyll fades, colors in the other pigments, the carotenoids and anthocyanins, come to the surface. Trees with leaves having a preponderance of carotenoids, like beech, birch and willow, turn varying shades of yellow. When anthocyanins predominate, as in the case of many maples, dogwoods and sumac, reds and purples appear. Variations in color from tree to tree, or even from branch to branch, are often caused by stress factors like disease, injury, or unusually wet or dry conditions. These factors contribute to the timing and degree of brilliance of the changing colors.
Source: www.empire.state.ny.us/tourism/follage

The route CAA has recommended is scenic but is not the shortest. For the past four years I've done the NYC to Syracuse drive many times and always skipped Route 17. It's much faster and usually an easier drive to take Rte 81 Sout all the way to Scranton, then take 380 South to Rte 80 West. Get off Rte 80 at Exit 53 to take Rte 46 and Rte 3 straight to the Lincoln Tunnel. If the leavers are turning there will be plenty of color in the Delaware Water Gap area and in the Poconos but in four years I've only seen color that early on one occasion. It usually turns closer to mid-late October.

I just reread your original post and now see the mention of Pelham. Rte 17 to the Tappan Zee is a more direct or easier route than the one I suggested but if scenery is of interest you might consider a longer route heading down. You could go straight over Rte 90 to Albany and across the river, then head south on the Taconic Parkway. It's a beautiful drive and may well have some color on the northern stretches.

Thanks, everybody, for your detailed and truly helpful responses! Owen, how much longer would your alternative route take? CAA suggests that the route they describe takes just over 8 hours. I know we will stop along the way (meals, bathroom breaks, etc.) so I'm figuring we'll arrive at my daughter's by nightfall. We aren't in a big hurry; we plan to leave Toronto just after the morning rush-hour.