Early morning sun bathes a pair of colorful trees at Lost Maples State Nature Area near Vanderpool. The colorful canyon in the state park offers trails for day hikes and campsites for overnight. Joshua Trujillo/Express-News

Graced with unique bigtooth maples — hence its name — and other deciduous trees such as Texas red oaks and American sycamores, the park delights visitors with explosions of red, orange and yellow amid a backdrop of evergreens in a canyon cut by the Sabinal River in Bandera and Real counties.

Admittedly, the show can be somewhat hit-or-miss. Some years the leaf change is more striking than others, and it's hard to know in advance exactly when the colors will truly dazzle. Wind and rain can prematurely whip leaves from the trees, and drought or an overly warm fall can dampen colors, which thrive on warm, clear days and cool nights.

Park staff was telling visitors Tuesday that the colors could already be approaching their peak, with maples already aglow and red oaks expected to peak after mid-November.

“Those cool nights and sunny days and decent soil moisture conditions produce good fall color,” said Pete Smith, a staff forester with the Texas Forest Service. “I think we are having all those this year.”

The maples in particular have withstood climate changes to survive at the park and in a few pockets around the state.

“It was prehistorically a lot more widespread,” Smith said of the maple species.

Taking advantage of the clear day were John and Doris Goode of Lake Jackson, who made their fourth fall trip to the park. They came during the week, when the sizable fall crowds are thinner and there are campsites to be had.

The blazes of color are a plus, but the cool weather is the real draw, they said.

“We don't care” how brilliant the colors are, Doris Goode, 53, said as she paused Tuesday during a hike along the East Trail, straw hat on her head and walking stick in hand. A stream gurgled nearby and the leaves and grasses whispered in the wind as she spoke. “We love this park. It's small and it's peaceful.”

“I was up at 5 (a.m.) just looking at the stars,” said John Goode, 62.

“I stayed snuggled under the electric blanket,” his wife replied.

There's a science to Mother Nature's recipe for breathtaking fall colors. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Web site, it starts with a wet, warm spring and ends with warm, sunny fall days and cool nights. When chlorophyll production slows down and then stops altogether, other pigments in the leaves that produce yellows, oranges, browns, reds and purples are expressed. The whole process is kicked off by longer autumn nights.

Carl and Kathryn Oliphant of Dallas munched on sandwiches as they prepared to tour the park Tuesday. The nature lovers have been married for 55 years and passed on their love of the outdoors to their three daughters.

The leaves look different even as the light changes, meaning new sights as the day wears on, said Kathryn Oliphant, 78.

“We love to be around nature, where we don't have the TV and the telephone,” she said. “You have to really love nature to come and see. Going back, we'll probably see different things than we did coming in.”

For the fall foliage report at Lost Maples, visit http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/lostmap/foliage.htm or call Texas Parks and Wildlife at (800) 792-1112. Press 3 and then 1 to hear the most recent foliage report.

Lost Maples is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for day use and can be reached at (830) 966-3413. The parking lot has just 250 spaces, so park officials suggest arriving early on weekends or visiting during the week.

khunger@express-news.net