A cascading waterfall flows over moss-covered rocks through an autumn forest, with a vibrant red maple leaf resting on a rock in the foreground pool surrounded by fallen brown and orange leaves beneath the water's surface.

Red Maple Leaf at Swiftwater Falls

View more photos like this:

This photo was taken on October 1st - a very early date for peak fall foliage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. An extreme drought took hold of all of New England during the summer and fall of 2025 and this brought muted foliage and an early peak as the drought stressed trees dropped their leaves well before Columbus Day Weekend.

I took a quick overnight trip up to New Hampshire hoping to catch some foliage and was rewarded with this beautiful display around Swiftwater Falls in Franconia Notch. I confess that I did place the red leaf myself but only because I was too slow to capture the naturally occurring red maple leaf that had drifted by minutes earlier.