After the maples drop, the season is not over. Golden tamarack lights the northern bogs in early to mid November, oak and beech hold russet and copper, and the Lake Michigan shoreline runs a week behind the inland woods. Head north for the larch, or south and west for the late hardwoods.
Rivers are the best seat in the house for fall color. You drift under the canopy with maples and aspen leaning over both banks, doubled in the water. Each run below carries the live color status of its region, so you can see what is turning before you load the boat. Levels and liveries shift year to year, so confirm a shuttle before you go.
What turns what color, and roughly when. The first reds are red maple in wet ground, the golds are aspen and birch, the late russets are oak and beech, and the very last act is tamarack, the conifer that turns gold and drops its needles in the northern bogs.
Best light is the first and last hour of the day, with the sun behind you and the leaves lit from the front. Overcast days saturate the reds and cut the glare on water.
Live color from NASA MODIS NDVI (satellite canopy) and Open-Meteo (recent lows and frost). Prediction is a typical-year model from regional climatology. Satellite vegetation composites lag real time by up to a few weeks, so the weather signal leads the edge of the season. A warm fall pushes peak later, an early hard freeze ends it fast.