Route 2 shops busy with leaf peepers

SHELBURNE, Mass. (WWLP) - Up and down the Pioneer Valley the leaves are changing, but aren't at their peak yet.

Even still, leaf peeping this weekend has become somewhat of a tradition.

For lots of people they drive along route two in Franklin County, shop and the roadside restaurants and shops, and keep doing it year after year.

For Ruth Wells of Springfield, she used to come up to Shelburne year after year with her late mother, and after not going for a while, wanted to leaf peep in her mother’s memory on Columbus Day.

"I wanted to come up in honor of her and this is a good year for the foliage and I love to see the different bright colors,” Ruth Wells told 22News.

Bill Keating said, "We used to come up here with our own boys. Every now and then they'll say "do you remember we did this or we did that? and they also take their children up, so it's a good thing, like a tradition that's passed on."

This Columbus Day weekend comes before the leaves have quite peaked in color.

The best color should arrive in Western Massachusetts within the next couple weeks.