Maples and Sweet Gum have the most beautiful fall colors.

a maple to me. Looks like my maple trees. Even though we have had a dry couple months, our maples have been pretty surprisingly.

You must enjoy the view every day you look out of your window.

I never know exactly what affects how bright the fall colors are. Something about when the rain falls in late summer?

seem to appear in the years when we have the worst winters. Not sure how the trees "know" in advance.

Now THAT'S how to start a Monday!

I agree with upper post, sugar or gum have those colors most. But all maples do really well. I taught college Dendrology for 30 years in an area with the most diverse number of species (GSMNP) in American. I was blessed to have the career I did. I am broke as a retired college faculty, but damn it, my job was amazing. Our colors were a little short lived here with extreme dry conditions, but blessed Ti have views of forests to play in all around me. Have to deal with Cawthorn/Meadows people when I get groceries, but I spend most all days in those trees off trails.
A cool fact, those leaves have those colors all summer, but are masked with chlorophyll green while not dormant. When they begin to shut down, the chlorophyll thus the green goes away to expose the colors until they drop, to feed the forest floor.
Fall in and around the Smokies, (far away from tourism and off trails) is the greatest part of my life, other than my daughter.
Acer saccharum Suger maple, Liquidambar styraciflua sweethum.
The real challenge for students was winter ID. No leaves, just twig characteristics. 120 species and learning scientific names.
Take time to get out and see, touch, and smell the forests. It keeps me happy and appreciate life, while living in a year round red forest of idiots.
Happy fall to all.

Maybe you can help me identify it?

Maples. The sinus has a more distinctive “U “ shape opposed to red, silver, mountain, black, and other species of maple under the genus Acer. From your picture the minimum serration and smoother edges I would say Sugar. But the sinus is a bit more of the “V” than a rounded “U” shape. We do not have black here, so I will look at my hundreds of ID Books and Binomial keys to check that out. But by overall shape of the tree and the leaf edges I would say sugar.
Norway and Black maple are similar but we have neither here. Other characteristics like hairy, smooth, vein arrangement come into play when eliminating down to a particular individual species. Some colleges offer incredible Dendrology and ID sites with amazing photography for free. It’s a great hobby to learn the trees. Without which, we would die.
Just looked at my book, I am gonna stick with sugar for your beautiful back yard species.
Cheers, happy tree watching.

and thanks for the information. Very interesting.

And we will not even get into horticulture cultivars, cross breading for landscaping. They can throw all your years of learning naturals into chaos.

A poem lovely as Callalilly's tree

He was spot on. We have an entire forest set aside in his name of old growth near me. Trees trees trees. I hug em daily.

Huge yellow poplars in an unlogged section near the SW corner of GSMNP. I've visited that lovely place three times since the 1980's, but it's been about 20 years since the last time.

I hiked up to "The Hangover" once for some fine views. Too bad the Chestnut blight robbed us of the other forest giants native to the Eastern US.

We went every year I taught to take college students to see them. Our other giant in the region is also being devastated, the Eastern Hemlock by an introduced adelgid.
Interesting thing in Kilmer forest around 12 years ago, there were so many dead and dying hemlocks near those trails, the forest managers used explosives to down those trees to protect tourists from those “Widow Makers”. Being very careful about directional felling to protect residuals and trail openings.
Chain saws are not allowed in those wilderness areas. Cross cut saws WERE used some. Way back out in the back country of wilderness and NPS those dying hemlocks are creating a massive fuel source for Wildland fires. The standing ones leaning and downed ones could combine to create devastating crown fires. Stay tuned.

Environmental destruction from introduced invasive species with the added impacts of habitat loss and climate change.

I'm not religious myself, but shouldn't religious conservatives place some value in actually conserving more of God's beautiful creation here on Earth?

The magic book states that the planet should be protected. But many of those cultist believe humans are THE species only. All other are only here for our use.
The exotics came with international shipping are movement. Here in Christmas tree country, we have lost most of our native wild Fraser Firs from an Adelgid similar to the hemlock one. It came from pallets abroad with larvae in the wood, and the dumbest thing, shipping importing firs it grade but tolerant of the bug, here for Christmas trees.
Climate change is letting South American species of insects and diseases to move northward to habitats that can not fight them off. All the species I dealt with in Natural Resources education that have succumb to exotics, those invasive are from China. We import much more than cheaply made crap, we imported plant and animal species, (bugs et al) that are wiping out our native species.
China gonna kill us one way or another.

His answer was that in the end it won’t matter, something about the rapture…that nonbelievers don’t “get” the big picture of the plan…

So, really, there is no need to make any effort to save the environment or endangered species.

Rape and poison our planet all you want. Enjoy the "Prosperity Gospel" (aka guiltless greed) until Sky Daddy calls you up into his warm embrace.

would mute the colors this year. I know that was a concern here in the Philly area with a droughty period during the summer and then finally some rain, followed by a couple cold snaps. So oddly, the wild combo of precipitation and temp swings has actually helped here as the last time I was out a few weeks ago headed to my nephew's b-day party in another county, I saw some nice fall coloration along the way (earlier in summer, there were a number of trees already dropping leaves due to the water stress).

Looks like a sugar maple for sure and a beautiful photograph of it!

but we are too far south to get the rich colors.

If we have a rainy spell followed by a sharp temperature drop, we will get some colors

There's not much I miss about living in the east, but I do miss the fall.

I truly have a beautiful view right in my own backyard.

We have some talented DUers w/ the camera n I’m enjoying it all very much 🙏

Some 40 years ago! I kept the color slides.
This is real pretty. The light makes the tree glow.