It may be odd to suggest some weekend drives for this fall at a time of sky-high gas prices, but leaf-peeping season comes just once a year. And Pennsylvania offers some of the most scenic drives in the country.

With temperatures already dipping into the 40s each night in Pennsylvania's northern counties, the first colored leaves are starting to show on red maples and sugar maples on the ridge tops.

Fall color in this region that includes Wayne, Susquehanna, Bradford, Tioga, Potter and McKean counties typically peaks the first week of October.

Your go-to place for the state's fall foliage activities and schedules is FallinPA.com, a Web site managed by the state's visitor's bureau, visitPA. It provides weekly foliage updates, foliage Web cams and suggestions for roadtrips and getaways.

One of the most popular drives in the state is Route 6, which National Geographic Magazine has voted among the top 10 scenic drives in the country. Also known as the Grand Army Highway, Route 6 takes you from Cherry Hill in Erie County to Milford in Pike County, across the northern portion of Pennsylvania. It includes bucolic farmland, valleys, stream crossings and the Allegheny National Forest.

Fall color in Western Pennsylvania and the central swath of the state, known as the central zone, peaks in mid-October. The Web site suggests 17 roadtrips. The three closest to Pittsburgh include:

• New Castle to Slippery Rock -- A 16-mile drive along Route 108, a tree-lined, two-lane highway that brings motorists near McConnell's Mill State Park and Moraine State Park.

• Kittanning Path -- This 57-mile drive follows Route 422 from Kittanning to Ebensburg. It cuts through Indiana County, the "Christmas Tree Capital of the World" for shipping more than 1 million trees annually, and runs near the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana.

• Lincoln Highway -- Part of Pennsylvania's Heritage Park Corridor, this 76-mile drive from Irwin to Bedford takes in the fall foliage of Shawnee State Park. It runs near Old Bedford Village, a re-creation of 1790s colonial life; Coral Caverns; historic Ligonier and its fort; and scenic Loyalhanna Gorge.

Also within the central zone, the fall foliage in Greene County got a boost last year from Martha Stewart Living when its September issue recommended the area to readers as one of the two best places in the mid-Atlantic -- along with the Hudson River Valley -- for leaf peeping.

The southern zone of the state, which includes the most southern counties from the central part of the state to Philadelphia, experiences its peak season at the end of October.