At the end of every summer, I send my children on an outdoor scavenger hunt. The list varies from year to year, but the tradition always includes one unvarying instruction: Find an early sign of fall. And even when they were as young as 3 or 4, my boys understood they were to bring me a colored leaf. Yellow, red, orange or brown would do — anything but green.

Then, as the season progresses — with the sun setting earlier, the mornings chillier and those pretty leaves increasingly abundant — we always plan a family outing.

For my children, apple-picking is the hands-down favorite fall activity. We find a “U-Pick” orchard, borrow poles designed to loosen fruit from the high branches, and fill our bags with Ida Reds, Macouns, Cortlands and many other varieties, each with its own distinct taste and hue. We always end up lugging home 25 or 30 pounds of fruit, and even though it’s way more than we intend to collect, we never have any trouble using it.

Whether apple-picking appeals to you or not, the temperature this time of year is perfect for hikes and festivals, the foliage is always worth a drive, and you needn’t go too far from most major cities to find hay rides, “haunted walks” and the fruits of the harvest, be it wine from a vineyard or gourds from a farmer’s market. Be sure to make hotel reservations in advance; even the sleepiest rural motels can fill up on peak fall weekends.

If you’re traveling in the Northeast, www.YankeeFoliage.com, sponsored by Yankee magazine, provides interactive foliage forecasts, sample driving tours and other ideas for making the most of autumn in New England, as well as recipes for seasonal produce and arts and crafts projects like pressing those colorful leaves.

The site www.stormfax.com/leaves.htm lists toll-free fall foliage hot lines, Web sites and fall events for 30 states throughout the country, from California and Montana to Georgia and Rhode Island. (Once you are connected to the Web site, click on “Next,” then “Lifestyle” and “Autumn Foliage.”) Especially useful for grown-ups with curious children, the Web site explains why leaves change color and provides pictures to help you identify which trees those beautiful fallen leaves come from.

The USDA Forest Service has a “National Fall Color Hotline” at (800) 354-4595. Its Web site, at www.fs.fed.us/news/fallcolors, offers “fall foliage hot spot” lists for eight national forests from Washington to Virginia, as well as information about top fall foliage sites in nearly every state, plus Puerto Rico.

Here is a state-by-state guide for a few areas, with information on how to find the loveliest leaves in your area.

Connecticut

The morning light shines on pillars of a bridge that connects the coastal towns of Edgecomb and Wiscasset, Maine. The colorful fall foliage in Maine is often framed by lakes, rivers or the coast, making it a popular fall vacation spot.

Activities range from wine-tasting to castle-touring to river cruises. Gillette Castle — open until Columbus Day — is situated on the grounds of a state park in East Haddam, overlooking the Connecticut River. For information, contact (860) 526-2336.

Mystic Seaport is site of a “Chowderfest” Oct. 11-13, while Stonington Vineyards is planning its annual Wine and Food Festival — including wine-tasting — for Oct. 18. Tours of the wine cellar are scheduled for noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

For more ideas on autumn trips in the area, visit www.mycoast.com. Click on “Mystic Coast & Country Press Releases,” then on “More Leaf Peeping Suggestions in Mystic Places.”

And for fall foliage updates, call Connecticut’s Vacation Center at (800) CT-BOUND or visit www.ctbound.org.

Maine

There’s nothing like the sight of gold and crimson against a blue background. That’s what you get when you take in the colors of autumn in Maine, where the trees are framed in so many locales by lakes, rivers and the coast.

Boothbay Harbor plays host to an Oct. 11-12 Fall Foliage Festival. Scarecrows are on display Oct. 11-18 in Rockland, when the town has its Harvest Day Celebration and Festival of Scarecrows. Farther east, in Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, couple your leaf-peeping with whale-watching cruises or a trip up Cadillac Mountain.

For more information about these events and others, check out www.visitmaine.com or call (888)-95MAINE. For updates on the state of the leaves visit www.mainefoliage.com or call Maine’s foliage hot line at (888) MAINE-45.

Tourists flock to New Hampshire each autumn to catch glimpses of tree-filled scenes like this in Franconia, N.H. The snow-covered trees in foreground are on Cannon Mountain.

New Hampshire

For the Granite State’s fall foliage reports, suggestions for scenic drives and other activities, see www.newhampshire.com/foliage. The state tourism office operates a fall foliage hot line at (800) 258-3608, and has foliage reports on its Web site, www.visitnh.gov. This is the busiest time of year for the tourism business in New Hampshire, so be sure to book ahead if you need lodging, and don’t be surprised to find other leaf-peepers on what you thought might be a lonely hike in the woods. For information on where to stay and what to do, call (800) FUN-INNH.

Vermont

How does a bike tour along the shores of Lake Champlain in October sound? The 1,187-mile Lake Champlain Bikeway stretches from New York to Quebec, and goes right through Burlington along the way.

The network’s loops range from 10 to 47 miles, and it even includes ferries to take bikers across the water where there’s no bridge. Check out www.champlainbikeways.org for more information, or call (802) 652-BIKE.

For more information about autumn in Vermont, go to the “Vermont by Season” section of www.vermontvacation.com for foliage reports and even a lodging availability forecaster. Or call (800) VERMONT.

Pennsylvania

From birding spots to hikes to travel packages, www.fallinpa.com has it all — including shots from a “live leaf cam” and maps. The Web site is part of the state’s www.experiencepa.com resource for tourists that can direct you to Amish country, the Poconos and of course Hershey Park, which, like many amusement parks, has special Halloween-themed events and evening hours on weekends from Oct. 17 through Nov. 2. For more information on autumn in Pennsylvania, call (800) VISITPA.

Illinois

Illinois claims to be the nation’s leading producer of pumpkins. So it’s no wonder that the town of Morton calls itself “the pumpkin capital of the world,” while harvest festivals abound throughout the state.

You can pick your own Sept. 27-Oct. 31 in Prairie View at the Didier Farms Pumpkinfest; peruse a display of more than 100 handmade scarecrows at a contest and festival Oct. 10-12 in St. Charles; ride a short-line railroad that leads to a pumpkin patch hidden in a forest Sept. 14-Nov. 1 in Lyndon; or try the Pumpkin Works corn mazes — including a six-acre “Jungle Maze” — between Oct. 1 and Oct. 31 in Paris. The Northwest Illinois “Trail of Terror” takes visitors on a spooky journey through 10 counties, with stops at pumpkin patches, fall festivals and the “Annie Wiggins Ghost Tour” in Galena (www.trail-of-terror.com).

For more information on seasonal attractions in Illinois, contact (800) 2CONNECT or visit www.enjoyillinois.com.

Wisconsin

Fishing, hiking, biking and driving along scenic byways are just a few of the options for autumn travelers in Wisconsin.

The Great River Road, designated a National Scenic Byway by the Federal Highway Administration, runs alongside the Mississippi River on Wisconsin Highway 35, through historic river towns and wildlife areas, from Kieler to Prescott. An Autumn Color Train will run trips aboard vintage railcars Oct. 3-5 and Oct. 10-12 from the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in the town of North Freedom through the Baraboo Hills. Call (800) 930-1385 for details.

Hikers have 20 miles of trails to choose from at Wyalusing State Park, perched at the junction of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers in Bagley. Call (608) 996-2261 for information.

In northwestern Wisconsin, you can drive 29 miles along Highway 77 right through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and if you’re lucky, spot a deer, beaver, loon or eagle without leaving your car. For details on the route, call (715) 264-2511.

There’s a Wine & Harvest Festival Sept. 20-21 in historic Cedarburg, and an Apple Festival Oct. 3-5 in Bayfield, on the shore of Lake Superior.

For information about these and other Wisconsin sites, call (800) 432-TRIP or visit www.travelwisconsin.com.