By: Katia Hetter
(CNN) -- A new crispness in the air. The red, orange and yellow of the leaves changing colors. The crunch of the first few leaves on the ground.
On that inevitable march toward winter, there are still a few weeks for the casual and determined leaf peeper alike to enjoy the leaves changing color before they fall.
Never mind that it happens every year. "It's because it's fleeting is why it's new every year," says Mel Allen, editor of Yankee Magazine. In each of his 33 years at the magazine leaf peeping has been a fall cover story.
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"It's fall and the leaves are becoming beautiful; apple orchards; and the hawks are flying overhead. It's a sensual experience," he says.
"If you were to talk to someone in New Orleans who had had 33 Mardi Gras, they'd still be excited about it," says Allen. "This is our party."
Different shades of red, orange and yellow
While evergreen trees such as pines and spruces have foliage that has evolved to survive extreme temperature changes, deciduous (broad-leaved) trees have evolved to drop their leaves and go dormant for the winter, says Ed Sharron, a science communication specialist with the National Park Service's Northeast Temperate Network in Vermont.
"It's such stark contrast," says Sharron, who's based at Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont. "There are different shades of green, of course, when you start to get that variation of oranges and reds and purples and greens all together. It's pretty spectacular."
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