Each fall, thousands of people come to Acadia National Park to experience the extraordinary display of color in the park's trees.
But Acadia’s autumn foliage wasn't always this colorful. Before the infamous fire in 1947, the forest was mostly evergreen.
Yet from the ashes of the 1947 fire arose a palette of color; after the fire burned 17,000 acres in Acadia National Park, the regrowth was a forest of mostly hardwoods, including birch, aspen, red oak, sugar maple, and beech.
The brilliant yellows you see stem from species such as beech, birch and elm. The blazing reds from maples and oaks.