Each weekend this fall, 74,000 fans will pack Cleveland Browns Stadium to cheer their team. But 200 miles south of that, some 2 million people will, at some point, experience a much quieter--and less crowded--side of Ohio in Hocking Hills State Park, driving under thick boughs of hardwood leaves aflame with autumn color.

For a few short weeks each year, entire swaths of the country turn into patchwork quilts of red, purple and gold foliage. Along with Ohio's Appalachian Mountains, California's Sierra Nevadas and the White Mountains in Maine, both will soon be drawing day-trippers on the lookout for the first signs of fall.

Once cold nights and short days cue the coming winter, deciduous trees, in an effort to conserve much-needed energy for the winter, drain chlorophyll from their leaves--leaving behind the bright pigments that were masked there during the warm months. Pat Quackenbush, naturalist for Hocking Hills State Park, says the 130 species growing in the region make for uniquely brilliant colors each fall, since the more species of trees around, the more diverse the leaf color in the canopy.

"Different trees produce different types of pigments, just like different people produce different types of pigments," Quackenbush says. "It's really impressive how many we have here, and the color changes you can get. Oranges and purples and yellows and reds: You name it, it's out there."

Planning a road trip among the leaves hinges simply on deciding which colors one wants to see. Aspens, like those found along Route 168 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, turn yellow. The maples along Route 100 in the Green Mountains of Vermont turn red. And Independence Pass, near Aspen, Colo., has a little bit of everything, including evergreen pines and firs stashed in between brilliantly yellow and orange cottonwoods, poplars and birch trees.