Acadia National Park

Each fall, hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers descend upon Acadia’s historic carriage roads to rake leaves and clear drainage ditches from miles of carriage roads in preparation for winter.

With a week left in the current fiscal year, and Congress seemingly unable to come to terms on how to fund the federal government, efforts are under way within the Interior Department, and National Park Service, to prepare for a government shutdown next week.

Acadia National Park this week is getting a third campground with the dedication and opening of the Schoodic Woods Campground on the Schoodic Peninsula. The 94-site campground is located on land once eyed for a sprawling resort, complete with hotel, golf course, sports center, and luxury villas.

National parks actually glow in autumn. From the fluttering gold of aspens and larch in the parks along the spine of the Rocky Mountains to the oranges, yellows and reds of the hardwood forests that cover Eastern parks and even on the Southwest’s sandstone, fall is the season of incandescence in the park system. Where do you find these rainbows? Here’s your guide to the "best bets" for fall color in the National Park System.