When to leave for fall colors

Hate to say it but the colors are already changing here in CO. I'm pretty sure they've already changed the further north you go.

Congrats on your retirement. :)

You may want to change plans and go to the northeast. It's still green in our area. Late September- October is 'leaf season.'

Do a Google search for 'northeast leaf viewing' or something similar. You'll get plenty of information.

Enjoy your trip.

I was listing the the CBC radio last week and a B.C. Forrest Service Biologist was saying that the reason we see the trees ( in BC) changing colors early is because the the drought we were/ are in this year.
Up here at camp we had noticed that the trees starting to change color mid August. The color we are seeing here look more of a dull yellow than the bright colors that we usually see in a normal fall.
As for when the colors usually show up is end of September early October..... usually.....
Soup.

Was just in Los Anchorage over Labor Day...colors they were a-changing in the bowl. I'm sure the colors are changed further North.

I think mid-September - mid-October is the best time of the year to see the North country, but I also like winter in Alaska. :)

Some photo series from the Anchorage paper. Note the dates.

http://www.adn.com/slideshow/photos-fall-colors-full-force-along-alaskas-highways

http://www.adn.com/slideshow/photos-color-fall-southcentral-alaska

http://www.adn.com/video/wild-alaska-gives-viewers-rare-perspective-states-beauty

A drought can definitely cause the colors to change early, even down here. I was hoping to leave around 1 Sep and take 4 to 6 weeks to get to the East side of the Rockies. I've never been to the NW during the fall, but I hear it's beautiful during the color change!

I also want to be headed back before the snow! We don't get much snow in AL!

I did that in 1990. We left Anchorage on Sept 7 and took a couple of weeks going south to WA. We ran out of fall about half way through BC. You will want to travel more slowly than we did. Maybe stop for a while somewhere on the Cassiar. Fall in WA is an October thing. Snow south of Williams Lake before November is not common.

Snow at higher elevations. Rain across the interior. Wind this past weekend knocked the leaves off of the trees at higher elevations, but in the valleys there is still a lot of color.

Middle of hunting season, so lots of road-side campers.

https://goo.gl/photos/AeyagHWkYoRF59vJ9

The colors along the Alaska hwy will not be as dramatic as you would find in the North Eastern part of the US and Canada, just because of the type of trees, IMHO. Most of the trees of the north west are coniferous, such as the spruce, hemlock, fir, etc. which don't turn colors but stay green all year.

The only turning trees, the deciduous ones. poplars, willows, birch, alder, etc are very quick to turn yellow and to shed their leaves in the fall. Altitude seems as times to have more to do with the color change than does how far north you may be. A dry fall or a rainy fall will speed up the lose of the leaves

Now the tundra areas of the north, will change into all sorts of beautiful colors, such as on a late fall trip, over the Denali Hwy between Cantwell and Paxson, etc. Not sure you will find anything in the west that will rival places like West Virginia in the fall time. You need places with trees such as maples, oaks, hickory, pecan, walnut, more of the hard wood deciduous types.

WInter may be arriving in Alaska. The story is mostly about Anchorage, with some from Fairbanks, and some pictures.

As noted by others here and elsewhere, late September is the time to somewhere else if you have snow allergy.