Mention autumn and most Americans think ‘New England.’ I am among them.

Sunny mornings in farming villages with snow white church steeples peering up from town squares and, of course, flaming reds and oranges in all the trees. Or lazy afternoons on bobbing docks as the lobstermen putter into port with their daily catch for the evening dinner.

I’ve savored my own small tastes of New England over the years. I hitch-hiked up to the Newport Folk Festival in the heyday of Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, when I worked at the New York World’s Fair. I’ve walked the Freedom Trail in the heart of old Boston when I visited my old employer’s corporate offices there. But those days are too long gone.

So this fall, we took a backroads 10-day trip into the further corners of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. If you love small towns, toasty warm B&Bs and roadside stops aplenty, you’ll want to explore New England next fall — or spring — yourself.

We started our New England sojourn by taking Alaska Air’s non-stop flight into Boston, then headed directly in our rental car to the home of an old friend in West Hartford, two hours to the west. West Hartford is one of those East Coast suburbs so old and established that it has a pleasant, walkable downtown core all its own. Lively restaurants, dress shops and clothiers, antiques and furnishing shops showcase their wares among the real estate offices and brokerages.

From Hartford we motored north, then turned west toward Williamstown and North Adams on a magical back road dubbed “The Mohawk Trail,” with Saratoga Springs, N.Y., as our destination. Traveling State Route 2, the “Mohawk,” from historic Deerfield and Greenfield west toward Williamstown in Massachusetts’ far northwest corner was a driver’s delight of gentle curves and ample lookouts over the Technicolor fall hilltops. Williamstown is home to Williams College, where longtime Mercer Islanders Wayne and Merle Farmer’s son Grant spent four years showing the Ivy Leaguers what Islander basketball is all about. Grant set and still holds the Williams College hoop team’s assist record.

Maybe it was the sunny Sunday morning sunshine, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a small college town more inviting than Williamstown.

Less than five miles from the college, the ancient factory town of North Adams has reinvented itself as the art center of New England. Several of North Adams’ evacuated brick factory buildings have become The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts. Today, Mass MoCA is an extremely lively place for all the arts, from film to graphic arts to performing arts.

Crossing into New York state (technically not part of New England), we drove up the state line to Saratoga Springs, which made the list of one of America’s 100 best towns under 50,000. Saratoga Springs was America’s first “Baden-Baden” — its first spa retreat where wealthy 19th century New Yorkers took stage coaches or trains in order to “take the waters.” And with the European evolutions of their spa towns from water therapy to casino gambling and dancing to horse racing, Saratoga Springs followed suit. Today, knowledgeable horse racing aficionados flock to Saratoga Springs from May Day through Labor Day for the almost daily racing events.

“Saratoga Springs is the best track in America,” explained Peter Horvitz, former publisher and owner of King County Publications. Mr. and Mrs. Horvitz own race horses and visit many of America’s tracks from Churchill Downs to Del Mar in California.

Clearly, the theme of Saratoga Springs’ downtown is horses. There is the Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. There is harness racing, too. And, yes, you too can still take the waters at the Saratoga Spa State Park. Throughout the town there are artesian water fountains, each with a different theme, that allow and encourage walkers to drink the health-giving waters, each with slightly varying mineral contents and tastes.

The town has several hundreds of homes and buildings with National Historic Register credentials, and even the new homes and buildings incorporate classic Victorian and Georgian themes. Clearly, Saratoga Springs is one of the must-stops of a visit to New England. As for restaurants, we give high marks to the Grey Gelding Bistro, Mare Restaurante, Brindisi’s and Forno Toscano Bistro, and there are lots of others where we heard good comments. Saratoga Springs is an extremely strong restaurant town.

From Saratoga Springs, we crossed the Hudson River near Glens Falls and took State Route 4 east across Vermont toward Woodstock. The road from Rutland (home to the Norman Rockwell museum) to Bridgewater and Woodstock follows swift Adirondack and Green Mountains rivers. I saw more than a few anglers, drift boaters and river rafters in search of trout as we rolled along. The road crosses the Appalachian Trail at Killington, the largest of New England’s ski resorts, then continues east toward Woodstock.

The town of Woodstock, which incidentally is not the Woodstock of stoned out rock ‘n’ roll fame (that one is in New York — and be advised, every state east of the Mississippi apparently has a town called Woodstock), was voted by David and Joan Vokac, authors of “The Great Towns of America,” as the most beautiful town in our 50 states. Having spent a couple of days there, I can’t disagree. Every aspect of Woodstock is perfect, from the babbling stream criss-crossing through town with bridges enough to watch the trout rest in shady holes to the high-styled shops and inns and hotels that bookend the town.

All the land on the outskirts of town was once owned by the Rockefeller family, and the finest property in town, the Woodstock Inn and Resort, was formerly a RockResort, also owned by the famous family. The land, which includes a working New England farm, was donated by Laurance Rockefeller to the government and today is a national park. Just outside the national park is the East Coast’s best raptor aviary, a new and well-endowed home to numerous eagles, hawks and owls.

We loved our B&B a few miles outside of Woodstock, the nearly 200-year-old Deer Brook Inn. Our suite had fine, old softwood floors painstakingly polished and finished, a just-so base to the historic rugs and furnishings that accented our room. The breakfast was massive, and of course the company and conversations around the breakfast table are half the fun of the B&B experience.

We enjoyed dinner at the Red Rooster, the restaurant at the Woodstock Inn, with Alec Longstreth, a graduate of Mercer Island High School and son of Dr. Will and Breck Longstreth, longtime Mercer Islanders. Alec is a fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies, which has its world headquarters in nearby White River Junction, Vt., on the Connecticut River. Similar to Mass MoCA, Alec’s Center for Cartoon Studies has breathed new life into the formerly decaying factory town of White River Junction. With students from Japan, Europe and North and South America, the Center has injected vitality into the area which sits just across the river from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

Alec explained the power of visual storytelling, which apparently is even further advanced in other countries. I was convinced of that fact when former Washington Senator Slade Gorton mentioned that the report of his 9/11 Commission was released both in narrative format and also in cartoon format. No joke.

From Dartmouth, we motored north along the fertile Connecticut River Valley, stopping at farms to buy apples and examine local handicrafts. From St. Johnsbury, State Route 2 crosses northern New Hampshire and continues east across middle Maine as we made our way to the Maine coastline at Bar Harbor. The two-lane State Route 2 is one of New England’s most scenic, knifing through the Granite State’s White Mountains, with views of New England’s highest peak, Mt. Washington, at 6,288 feet. While one can drive to the top in the summertime, the mountain is famous among geographers as the annual winner of the coldest point in the contiguous 48 states during New England’s frigid winters.

In Maine, we pulled off the road at the town of Waterville to visit the campus of Colby College, where a son of other friends spent four years. Colby surprised us with its very modern buildings and massive campus. It’s easy to see why the campus is so large. Maine has miles of undeveloped land.

Bar Harbor may be Maine’s most visited seaport. With Arcadia National Park within five miles of the town square, the region is a nature lover’s dream. Hiking, biking and kayaking are very popular, and the harbor hosts several boating tours that offer lobster potting, fishing and whale watching. If you want to zip over to scenic Nova Scotia, the daily ferry makes it easy. Remember: take your passport.

From Bar Harbor, Maine’s State Route 1 is the two-lane road that covers the waterfront. With bridges over rivers and across bays and estuaries, water is never far from view. Each town seems cuter than the next, and we were tempted to stay longer at Bucksport, tiny Blue Hill and tinier Castine.

We did spend two nights in Camden on the coast, and Camden gets my vote as Maine’s most scenic seaport. The many mansions along tree-lined lanes, fabulous yachts bobbing in the harbor, and high-end French restaurants were all evidence that Camden is not a stranger to East Coast old money. The town has always been home to shipbuilders, artists and writers, including Edna St. Vincent Millay, who began her career there. Today, shops line the downtown streets, and restaurants featuring lobster rolls and chowder are everywhere.

Our B&B in Camden was the Belmont Inn, a five-minute walk from the harbor, town center and 20 good restaurants. The Belmont is an example of a lovingly refurbished wood New England manse of good proportions with large family and sitting rooms, extra-large bedrooms and cool and fresh porches perfect for afternoon naps.

I couldn’t get enough of Camden’s harbor. It had a 30-foot waterfall cascading into the base of the harbor, which invited sealife and birds of all kinds. The beach, too, was sandy fresh, and the surrounding natural grassy amphitheater made the space a summer delight. Since Camden obviously is a jewel that tourists love, the city coffers are full enough to do some very imaginative work. One example is the city library, an architectural showcase with its sunny shafts of light penetrating the half-subterranean building.

Our final stop on this New England loop was at the twin beach towns of Kennebunkport and Ogunquit, 20 miles north of the New Hampshire-Maine state line.

Ogunquit is famous for Maine’s best and largest beach. Kennebunkport is famous for George and Barbara Bush — their hometown and current residence.

The beach, which stretches from Kennebunk to Ogunquit, attracts a sun-loving crowd which guarantees lots of lobster-roll shops, breakfast eateries, kite shops and New England’s best summer stock. We saw a lively presentation of “Singing in the Rain” one evening.

The most lauded restaurant and inn in Maine is found in Kennebunkport, the venerable White Barn. This historic Relais & Chateaux member serves classic French-styled multi-course dinners nightly in the most beautiful barn I’ve ever been in. Jackets are required for men, but since this area attracts mostly a more casual crowd, the White Barn fortunately has a good supply of extra jackets for the likes of me. Our dining experience was worth every penny.

Art lovers will find lots of art galleries along the coastal towns of Bar Harbor, Camden and Kennebunkport, but the best art in Maine is at the Portland Art Museum. We took an hour-long docent overview tour conducted by a former denizen of Bellevue and found Portland’s museum to be the equal of most towns three times its size.

Shoppers who get to Ogunquit or Kennebunkport can take a half day to hit the outlet mall at Kittery, the first town in Maine that one hits on the drive up the coast from Boston. The mall at Kittery is massive, easily a half-mile long, and good.

By the end of our trip, Judy and I agreed that we loved New England. Having said that, it is a five-plus hour plane ride from Western Washington. We also believe that our own harbor villages of Puget Sound, the San Juans and British Columbia’s coast and islands stand up well to those of the Northeast. Our chowder is as good as theirs. Our B&Bs match up well, too. Sometimes, taking a trip reminds us of the good things that we have in our own backyard.

If you go:

In Woodstock, Vt., the Deer Brook Inn B&B can be contacted at (802) 672-3713 or deerbrook@vermontel.net.

In Camden, Maine, the Belmont Inn can be contacted at (800) 238-8053 or innkeeper@thebelmontinn.com.

For Saratoga Springs, N.Y., go to www.saratoga.com, the official Web site of their visitors and convention bureau. At that Web site, you’ll find information about the racing season, coupons for hotels and restaurants, information on special art shows, car shows, holiday events and the works.

For Woodstock, visit www.woodstockvt.com, the Web site for the Chamber of Commerce, or call (888) 496-6378.

For Bar Harbor, Maine, visit www.barharborinfo.com, the Web site for its Chamber of Commerce, or (800) 345-4617. The Web site lists all the outdoor and indoor events of the season.