Fall color near Cedar City.

The show runs downhill over several weeks. The high-country aspens around Cedar Breaks and Brian Head typically turn from late September into early October, the maples and mixed color in Cedar Canyon follow, and the cottonwoods in the lower canyons carry it toward the end of October. Exact timing shifts with each year's weather.

Highway 14 up Cedar Canyon, straight from downtown. You climb from red rock through the maple and fir belt to the aspen country on the Markagunt Plateau, and the loop over to Cedar Breaks and down through Parowan Canyon on Highway 143 makes it a circle. It is the best free show in the county.

The highest country goes early. The stands above 9,000 feet on the Markagunt Plateau and around the Cedar Breaks rim usually begin in late September, which is why the rim drive is the season opener here.

Usually, yes. Highway 148 typically runs well into October and closes for the winter with the first serious snow, so check the road status before a late-season trip up.

Up Highway 14 through Cedar Canyon, across the plateau past the Cedar Breaks turn, and down Parowan Canyon on 143 to come home on I-15. It strings the whole elevation ladder into one afternoon.

No. The best of it is visible from the paved highways and the pullouts, which is why locals treat leaf season as a driving holiday. If you do want to walk, the rim trails at Cedar Breaks and the creek paths in town both put you inside the color instead of beside it.

In a good year, yes. The valley cottonwoods hold their gold into late October, right when the sheep come down Main Street, and that overlap makes it my favorite single weekend on the calendar.

Not unless you enter Cedar Breaks, which charges its normal vehicle fee. The Highway 14 pullouts, Parowan Canyon, and every street in town put on the show for free.

Morning and late afternoon, when the low sun works the reds in the rock against the golds in the trees. Midday flattens the canyon, and an overcast sky actually helps the aspens glow.