Every October we get the same phone call. Someone wants to book for peak color and wants to know which week to pick. The honest answer: Schuylkill County does not have one peak week. It has about three, depending on how high up the mountain you are willing to drive.

That is good news if you are staying with us. Twin Grove sits at roughly 600 feet in the Swatara Valley, with the Blue Mountain ridge running above 1,400 feet just to our south and east. From your site, you can drive to two different points in the foliage calendar in under an hour.

Come the wrong week for the valley and you are still in the right week for the ridge, or the other way around.

When to Come

Our pick for a single weekend: the middle weekend of October. You get the ridge just past its best, the mid-elevation slopes at peak, and the valley coming on strong. Three stages of the season in one trip.

These are averages. A warm September pushes everything back, and a windy rainstorm can strip a hillside in a day.

Check the report before you head out. Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources publishes a statewide foliage report weekly through the season, and the Weiser State Forest district covers Schuylkill County specifically. The Pocono Mountains three-zone forecast is worth a look if you are willing to drive north.

Why Elevation Moves the Date

The rule of thumb foresters use: color runs roughly a few days earlier for every few hundred feet you climb.

Over the 800-foot spread between our valley and the Blue Mountain crest, that works out to a week or two of difference. Which is exactly what you see on the ground here.

Two other things shift the timing:

• Which way the slope faces. North-facing slopes get less sun, cool off sooner, and turn several days ahead of south-facing slopes at the same elevation. If the ridge looks late from below, check the shady side.
• How close you are to water. Creek bottoms run behind the surrounding hillsides, because moving water and damp soil hold heat and keep trees green longer. The Swatara corridor is usually the last thing in the county to turn, and often the most worth waiting for.
  
  

The practical version: arrive early in the month, drive up. Arrive late, stay low and follow the water.

Loop One: The Swatara Valley

Low elevation, latest color

• Distance: Roughly 35 miles
• Time: About an hour and a half with stops
• Best window: Third and fourth weeks of October
  
  

The easiest one, and you start it by pulling out of the gate.

Head west on Suedberg Road and pick up Route 443 through Swatara State Park, directly across from us. The park runs along the Swatara Creek between Blue Mountain and Second Mountain, and the old rail-trail corridor gives you long open views in both directions.

Follow 443 west toward Green Point and Lickdale, where the valley opens into farmland with ridges framing it on both sides. Loop back east on the older parallel roads through Pine Grove. If you have time, detour to Sweet Arrow Lake County Park for still-water reflections in the late afternoon.

This is the loop for the back half of October, and the one that works best on a gray day. Valley color reads well in flat light in a way ridge views do not.

Good stops: Swatara State Park trailheads, Sweet Arrow Lake County Park, the farm stands along 443.

Loop Two: Blue Mountain and Hawk Mountain

High elevation, earliest color

• Distance: Roughly 60 miles
• Time: Half a day with stops
• Best window: First half of October
  
  

Drive this one if you are here early in the month.

Head east out of Pine Grove and pick up Route 895 through Friedensburg and New Ringgold, running roughly parallel to the Blue Mountain ridge, then climb Hawk Mountain Road to the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary entrance.

The Sanctuary sits on the ridge at about 1,500 feet across 2,600 protected acres.

• Lookout Trail is a one-mile loop out to South Lookout with big views down the valley
• North Lookout is the classic vantage if you will walk further on rocky ground
• There is an admission fee for the trails
  
  

Time it right and you get two shows at once. Hawk Mountain is one of the best raptor migration watches in North America, averaging 20,000 hawks, eagles, and falcons past the lookouts each fall. The count runs from late summer into December, and golden eagles come through in late October and November, right as the ridge color is finishing.

Come down toward Drehersville and loop back north on Route 61 through Deer Lake and Schuylkill Haven. That stretch gives you the ridge from below, a completely different view than the one you just had.

Good stops: Hawk Mountain visitor center and lookouts, the Route 895 pull-offs, Schuylkill Haven for coffee on the way home.

Loop Three: The Coal Region

Mid elevation, middle of the window

• Distance: Roughly 50 miles
• Time: Two to three hours with stops
• Best window: Second and third weeks of October
  
  

The most interesting drive of the three if you like history mixed in with your scenery.

Head north out of Pine Grove toward Tremont and pick up Route 209, which runs northeast through the old anthracite towns toward Pottsville. You are in the mid-elevation band the whole way, which means this loop tends to be at peak while the ridge is fading and the valley is still coming on.

The landscape reads differently here too. Hardwood hillsides, old mine country, church steeples, and rows of company houses give the color something to sit against.

Pottsville is the natural turnaround. County seat, home to America’s oldest brewery, worth an hour on foot. Head back south on Route 61 and 443 to close the loop.

Good stops: Downtown Pottsville, the Route 209 overlooks between Tremont and Donaldson, Yuengling if you want the brewery tour. Check the Explore Schuylkill events calendar for what is happening in town the weekend you visit.

A Fourth Drive, If You Have a Full Day

The Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage Festival is about 45 minutes northeast and runs the first three weekends of October, with a scenic railway through the Lehigh Gorge.

Book the train ahead and use the shuttle from Mauch Chunk Lake Park, because downtown parking is gone by mid-morning.

Before You Come

• We are open all year. October weekends fill up, and there is a two-night minimum on weekends, so book earlier than you think you need to. Compare ways to stay if you are deciding between an RV site, a cabin, and a cottage.
• Bring layers. Valley mornings run cold, the ridge is another ten degrees colder with wind, and afternoons can hit the 60s. You will use everything you pack.
• October weekends have their own programming. We run themed weekends through the month, including Halloween. See Things to Do for what is on.
  
  

Come the second or third weekend of October if you only get one shot, and let elevation do the rest of the work. Drive up early in the month, stay low late in it, and you will catch peak color no matter which week you booked.