The leaves are already turning — time to plan your NJ foliage trip

Take a look around this week. That yellow tinge showing up on trees all over the state isn't your imagination. It's early September, and the fall foliage change is just getting started. Consider this your reminder: now is the time to actually plan those leaf-peeping trips, before the good weekends fill up.

Most people default to New York State, the Poconos, or New England when they think about great fall color. Fair enough, those places earn the reputation. But New Jersey has genuinely great foliage of its own, and you don't have to leave the state to find it. Here's one standout drive in each region, north to south, plus a spot worth stopping for lunch along the way.

View of NJ highlands from Milford PA | photo by EJ

North Jersey: High Point State Park

If you want the single best leaf-viewing in New Jersey, this is where you go. High Point State Park sits at the state's highest elevation, 1,803 feet, up in the Kittatinny Ridge of the Highlands, and the monument at the summit gives you sweeping views across three states at once, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, all lit up in color at the same time. Take Route 23 north through Sussex County to get there, a scenic drive in its own right. Forecasters currently have North Jersey's peak color landing around October 16 to 19, the earliest window of anywhere in the state, since color always moves north to south here.

Lunch stop: Krogh's Restaurant & Brew Pub, Sparta — old-world charm, a full brewpub menu with daily specials, and the kind of place that feels like it's been part of the town forever, because it has.

Route 29 between Lambertville and Frenchtown | Google Maps

Central Jersey: the Delaware River drive, Lambertville to Frenchtown

Route 29, hugging the Delaware River from Lambertville north through Stockton and up into Frenchtown and Milford, is one of the most underrated scenic drives in the entire state. The river on one side, wooded hillsides on the other, historic small towns to stop in along the way. This stretch of Hunterdon County typically hits peak color right around the statewide average, forecasters have that landing near October 21 this year.

Lunch stop: The Sergeantsville Inn, Sergeantsville — a historic tavern with original fireplaces and genuinely cozy dining rooms, just off Route 519, close enough to swing by the last covered wooden bridge in New Jersey on the way.

Fall color | photo by EJ

South Jersey: Wharton State Forest and Batsto Village

The Pine Barrens don't get talked about as a fall foliage destination nearly enough, and that's a mistake. While the pines themselves stay green, the hardwood swamps threaded through Wharton State Forest, especially the red maples and Atlantic white cedar along the Mullica River near Batsto Village, put on a genuinely different kind of fall show, deep reds and rusts against all that green, instead of the typical New England palette. South Jersey runs latest in the state, with peak color forecast around October 24 and stretching into early November in spots.

Lunch stop: Penza's Pies at the Red Barn Cafe, Hammonton — an old-world-style bakery and cafe, literally housed in a red barn, that's been featured by both the New York Times and the Food Network, just a few miles from Batsto Village.

A few practical notes before you go

Treat all of these dates as a planning window, not an appointment, this year's forecast carries roughly a two-week margin either direction depending on wind, rain, and temperature swings between now and then. Check a current foliage report three to seven days before you actually go, and build one backup stop into your day in case one spot is past peak while another hasn't turned yet. Start north, finish south, and you can chase the color the same way it moves across the state.