Once boasting more cows than people, Vermont remains a mostly rural and small-town state. Though millions of tourists flock here during fall-foliage season, most Vermonters stay close to home, enjoying the seasonal changes in a tree or two outside their doors.

(Text adapted from "Leaves of Autumn: A Vermont Sampler," Autumn 1984, National Geographic Traveler magazine)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Vermont: Suite of Seasons," September 1998, National Geographic magazine)