They fill our hotels. They crowd our restaurants. They jam our roads with the slow, deliberate paces of their coach buses.
It's fall in the Upper Valley and the "leaf peepers" are back.
According to The New York Times, every year New England foliage attracts over 4 million leaf peepers. This unique brand of tourists travels to the region to watch the leaves change from green to orange or yellow, a phenomenon often underappreciated by jaded locals.
During leaf-peeping season, from approximately the middle of September until the end of October, New England's shops, restaurants and hotels are at their busiest.
"It is certainly our busiest time of the year," said Jennifer English, an employee of the Jackson House Inn in Woodstock, Vt. "We are fully booked for the season -- 100 percent. We have been for months in advance."
The foliage season even manages to attract leaf peepers from all over the world. One tourist, Viveka Bhandari, traveled over 7,100 miles from her home in New Delhi, India to New Hampshire.
"This is not my first time here [in New England] -- I have been to Maine and Vermont as well." Bhandari said. "It is truly beautiful and I still enjoy it very much."
There are a range of activities offered for peepers during the foliage season. English recommends scenic drives around the Woodstock area, tours of the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Park and
even the College's Hood Museum as locations to enjoy peeping."The foliage this year has been quite the treat," Scottie Johnson, a foliologist from Norwalk, Conn., said. "There has been adequate rain this summer leaving a lush green canopy hasp and content with modest consumption. The color has been delightful: badges, golds and yellows."
To see the foliage in New England this year, leaf peepers will need to go to higher altitudes in states in northern New England, Johnson said. Online forecasts of leaf color are available for peepers as they plan where to go.
Serious leaf peeping is by no means a inexpensive endeavor for those seeking expert guides. Foliage tours by Tauck Worldwide Discoveries, a Connecticut-based travel agent, cost as much as $3,050 for 11 days. In fact, the leaf peeping industry is worth close to $8 billion in New England alone, according to top British newspaper The Guardian.
While guided tours are available, many students choose to observe the foliage independently.
"I know a lot of people like to do it in groups, but I need to be alone. I find it soothing and relaxing," Britton Jennings '11 said. "The soft colors ease my stress as a student and let me take a more laid back approach to life at college."
The leaf peeping industry took off in the 1920s, when the invention of the automobile made New England more accessible, according to The New York Times.
