New England’s Tones of Autumn

Soon leaf peepers will be out in force across New England, taking to the back roads of Vermont and New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, filling their souls with the wonders of autumn’s colors and recording on film this annual spectacle. Photos appearing on this page were taken during the height of the fall foliage season last year by Times photographer Larry Bessel. Like old-fashioned calendar scenes, they stir memories of harvest time and crisp autumn days, apple cider, fields yellow with pumpkins . . . and those early frosts that follow summer’s final melancholy days.