Laurel Highlands

The Laurel Highlands are the ridges east of the city, where the leaves usually turn in the middle of October. Three drives cover it. Linn Run State Park is the hollow above Rector, a narrow road under hemlock and then hardwood. Laurel Summit is the high picnic ground on the same ridge, with a view back toward the valley when the weather is clear. The third is the road down into Ohiopyle, where the Youghiogheny drops over the falls in the middle of town. The photograph is Cucumber Falls, a smaller drop in the park.

There is no ticket and no gate that opens for a season. The parks charge for a cabin or a campsite, not for driving through. The boxed days on the calendar are October 10 through 18, the middle of the month, which is when the color usually peaks. A warm September or an early frost moves that window. The roads are open on the days that are not boxed.

The pin on the map is Ohiopyle, because that is a single place you can aim at. Linn Run and Laurel Summit are north of it, still on the same ridge.