Fall color
King of the hill
With a huff and a puff, hikers earn a view of fall colors.
When it comes to hiking, we all like to be on top.
There's nothing like a great view, especially in fall. Climbing until we're eye level with birds and caressed by breezes, watching the land roll away into the horizon, we feel as if we're on top of the world.
Even military officers and scientists turn into poets when faced with a beautiful view, such as those at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in the Upper Peninsula.
One fall swoop
The roller-coaster hills and riverside bluffs of northeast Iowa yield a photo album of panoramas.
Long before the second-growth forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin’s north woods became fall destinations, sightseers were flocking to northeast Iowa.
Flat? Hardly. In this part of Iowa, only the river is flat. Towering bluffs line the Mississippi, providing unparalleled views of the sprawling river plain.
For more than 150 years, people have gone to great lengths to see these views. In 1851, when the town of Lansing consisted of a few log cabins, a
20-year-old steamboat passenger named Harriet Hosmer noticed a particularly steep bluff there.
Great fall festivals
Here are the best of the fests in 2012.
Fall is made for festivals. It's harvest time, and the fields and orchards are overflowing. Trees turn red and gold. And it's the last time we'll enjoy warm weather until spring.
The many people who heed the urge to get out and about on crisp autumn weekends make it the busiest tourist season of the
year.
Any town that can hold a fall festival does, and well-established ones, such as Bayfield's Apple Festival (see Big apples), become almost too popular.
Autumn in the studios
On fall art tours, treasure hunters find vivid colors everywhere they look.
When country artists hang an "Open'' sign on their studios, it's time for seasoned shoppers to hit the road.
Around the region, art-studio tours have been springing up, beckoning art patrons into the countryside just as fall leaves change color.
It's the perfect meeting of minds and pocketbooks — shoppers get to chat with the artists, and artists get to sell right out of their studios.
Best of fall
The chase is on as autumn colors coat the countryside.
I always get a little frantic in fall, trying to make the most of a too-brief window of opportunity.
Fall is the best time for a lot of things: hiking, after frost has knocked off the bugs; road trips, when the countryside is at its loveliest; and wildlife-watching, when birds and beasts are on the move.
Plus, it's gorgeous. Most people try to catch the reds and oranges of maples at peak, but tamaracks, oaks and tallgrass keep
things glowing through October.
Bluff-country byways
In fall, Minnesota's southeast corner yields a cornucopia of treats and scenery.
At harvest time, Minnesota's bluff country overflows with beauty.
Fat pumpkins await buyers at farmers' markets. Golden clumps of wildflowers line bicycle trails. From buggies, the Amish sell homemade baskets, bumbleberry jam and apple butter.
There's an abundance of everything, including tourists.
Toasting Oktoberfest
Festive tributes to Bavarian tradition put the oompah into fall.
When fall arrives, we get a sudden urge to hoist a stein of beer, eat a grilled bratwurst and listen to red-cheeked men in
little felt hats play the accordion.
Fall belongs to the Germans, who streamed into the Upper Midwest in the 1850s and still are the largest ethnic group in every
state. Which is a good thing, because Germans like to have fun.
In October 1810, they had so much fun at the wedding of Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen and Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, held in a meadow near Munich, that they decided to do it every year.
A sortie along the St. Croix
On autumn days, this scenic valley is dressed to impress.
On a lovely day in fall, few places show off this region better than the St. Croix River Valley between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The 52-mile stretch from Taylors Falls to the St. Croix’s confluence with the Mississippi at Prescott has everything a tourist could want — shops, historic houses, theaters, train excursions, boat cruises.
But mostly, it has scenery — scenery I wanted to show my nieces Alissa and Livia, who had left Florida to start careers in the Twin Cities. As it turns out, the St. Croix looks awfully good to people raised in Florida.
High color in Cable
Fall frames the abundant beauty around a northwest Wisconsin town.
In the forests and lakes around the northwestern Wisconsin town of Cable, the reds, oranges and yellows of fall are mere gilding on the lily.
This landscape, much of it part of Chequamegon National Forest, is beautiful in any season. In winter, cross-country skiers
glide along forest paths and the 52-kilometer Birkebeiner trail, on which North America's largest and most famous
Nordic-skiing race is held each February.
In spring, the mountain-biking season starts, culminating in September with the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, the nation's largest.
Pursuing the hues
With luck, leaf peepers can squeeze six weeks of color out of fall.
As anyone who’s ever planned a fall trip knows, peak leaf color can be elusive.
Betting on a burst of spectacular color is like plugging nickels into a slot machine. To win, all of the figures have to line up: the right number of warm days and cool nights, the right levels of sugar produced, the right amounts of moisture.
This year, a cold and wet spring was followed by an early June heat wave, frequent rains and then drought in much of the region.
Quiet time on the North Shore
Late fall is marked by stark beauty, cheaper stays and the gales of November.
The skies were leaden and forbidding as Lake Superior slid into view and we descended into Duluth. The wind mauled our hair as we stood alongside the harbor canal, waving to the crew of the Sea Pearl II as it pushed toward Malta with a load of grain.
Driving up the shore, we listened to taped stories of shipwrecks: The sidewheeler Lotta Bernard, pummeled into pieces off Gooseberry Falls on Oct. 29, 1874.
The steamer Edenborn, hurled into the mouth of Split Rock River and broken in two on Nov. 28, 1905. The Lafayette, pulverized against a cliff near Encampment Island on the same day.
15 great fall views
From these overlooks, see rolling waves of color light up the landscape.
In autumn, the pilgrims head for Holy Hill.
Some want to pay homage to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for whom the basilica was built in 1930. But many others just want to see the amazing view, which includes the Milwaukee skyline and surrounding Kettle Moraine State Forest, dappled with colors.
The basilica was built atop a kame — a mound filled with glacial rubble — that has one of the highest elevations in southeast Wisconsin and the highest in the 120-mile-long kettle moraine, where two lobes of the last glacier collided.
Autumn on horseback
For a treat, enjoy the fall scenery on a guided trail ride.
In fall, we all love to get out and see the colors on a good tramp through the woods.
But why not let a horse do the walking?
I don’t ride much, but when I do, it’s always autumn. Crisp air and colorful forests call for a trail ride, and the view is always better on a horse.
Fall in Door County
On Wisconsin peninsula, autumn colors gild a much-loved landscape.
Around the Upper Midwest, Door County is the tourist destination that other tourist destinations envy.
Everything a tourist loves, it’s got: Lighthouses, craggy shorelines, sand dunes. Golf courses, boutiques, bistros. Bicycle paths, hiking trails, beaches.
There’s a little bit of New England in the white-frame buildings of Ephraim, where tourists click photos of Wilson’s, a century-old ice-cream parlor. There’s a little bit of Europe in Sister Bay, where goats graze on the sod roof of Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant. There’s not much that isn’t picturesque.
Cheap fall getaways
Here are 20 places to enjoy autumn colors without going into the red.
Fall is the busiest travel season of the year — we all know the nice days are numbered, and we're going to try our damnedest to make them count.
But with pretty much everyone heading out to look for fall color, especially on weekends, there are few bargains.
That's why those of us on a budget look to our old friends: the parks, the mom-and-pop motels, the environmental centers, the hostels, the outdoors clubs.
Great fall drives
Chase the colors through glorious autumn landscapes.
Sure, winters can be rough here in wind-chill country. But why do we tough it out? For the big payoff of autumn, of course, with its crisp, sunny days and the luminous orange of the sugar maple, the scarlet of sumac, the golden popple and bronzed oak.
They don't have that in Florida and Arizona. But here, we've got it all: a bright palette of colors, harvest festivals and nifty little towns to explore.
Fall is the time to be out and about. In Minnesota, the state scenic byways are a good bet, as are Wisconsin's Rustic Roads and Iowa's Scenic Byways.
Great grape stomps
At harvest festivals, compete with your feet.
During harvest time in a vineyard, turning purple has nothing to do with the Minnesota Vikings.
Purple is what you'll be if you get into a wooden tub of grapes and try to turn them into juice with your bare feet. Vineyards don't get their juice that way anymore, but many still offer a grape stomp, and there's nothing goofier to do on an autumn day.
There are prizes for those who extract the most juice and those who show the most "style,'' so wearing a creative costume
helps.
10 great fall hikes
For a perfect day, walk one of these lesser-known trails and do some sightseeing, too.
A fall Saturday dawns, sunny and mild. It’s a perfect day for hiking — but where?
One fall, I looked beyond the usual northwoods favorites: Minnesota's North Shore, the many marquee trails along Wisconsin's Ice Age National Scenic Trail; Michigan's Escarpment Trail in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.
They’re spectacular, but some of the best trails are found in less obvious places — in state forests, wildlife
refuges, prairie, even towns. So I got out my map and picked Governor Knowles State Forest, on the Wisconsin side of the St.
Croix River.
15 great trails to ride in fall
Here's where to get your fill of flora, fauna and fall colors.
It was a classic fall weekend when we rode the Willard Munger State Trail in eastern Minnesota.
It's a peaceful corridor through forest that, on the second weekend of October, surrounded us with a warm palette of honey
and cinnamon, mixed with evergreens and the white of birch trunks and milkweed pods. From time to time, we went through one
of the small towns on Highway 61, immortalized by Bob Dylan.
But we were among the few bicyclists on the trail. Where was everybody? Probably on I-35, rushing to and from the North Shore.
So many festivals, so little fall
When time is short, go power tripping.
In this part of the world, fall is sweet, but way too short.
All of the quaint little towns along rivers and in the bluffs have to pack their autumn festivals into the same six weekends, rolling out parades, pumpkin contests and oompah bands for all the leaf-peeping tourists.
The choices are paralyzing. Flea market or scarecrow contest? Pumpkin regatta or studio tour? Yodeling contest or dachshund
races?
What makes leaves turn color?
Look for consistent summer moisture, followed by warm days and cool nights.
Every year, it happens like magic: In September, the uniform green of the hardwood forests starts morphing into a rolling wave of reds, russets, golds and orange.
Often, the colors are glowing, as if lit from within, but sometimes they're dull and faded. Some years, the maple color is
spotty, turning here and there over several weeks, and there's no real peak.
In a bad year, there's barely any color at all, just mousy yellows on leaves that drop in the first stiff wind.
Hawk heaven
On a ridgetop in Duluth, bird watchers keep eyes on the fall skies.
On Duluth's Hawk Ridge, a bird in the hand is worth at least two in the sky.
They're impressive when spotted overhead. But up close, it's easier to get to know a bird — say, the northern goshawk, a fierce predator whose image once adorned the helmet of Attila the Hun.
As she held a young goshawk by the legs, naturalist Willow Maser struggled to make herself heard above its high-pitched screeches.
Bash on a bike trail
Kick up your wheels at a small-town fall festival.
By the start of September, temperatures cool down and everyone starts thinking the same thing: Time to plan a weekend bike trip.
Autumn is a great time to try out a new bike trail, not only because of fall colors and invigorating weather but because so
many small towns throw harvest festivals in September and October.
Since trails go right through towns, bicycle tourists are right in the middle of the action.
Tracing the Ice Age Trail
In north-central Wisconsin, a slow-moving monolith left a playground for weekend wanderers.
When the last glacier melted out of Wisconsin, it left a gift to future generations.
It wasn't much at first — boulders, heaps of gravel, water, chunks of ice trapped under rubble. But over time, the ice seeped away and created kettle lakes for fishermen. The raging meltwater stripped away softer rock, leaving walls of volcanic rock for climbers and scenic river gorges for canoeists.
The heaps of gravel grew skins of greenery and, with boulders carried down from Canada, created a dramatic landscape.
Autumn at the lake
In fall, Brainerd area is a hideaway in plain sight.
It was a warm, sunny fall day in the heart of Minnesota. The woods were aglow with color, and there were many ways to wallow in it — on trails for hiking, paved paths for biking, lakes for boating.
But something was missing. Where were all the people?
Apparently, they were on the North Shore, fighting for space amid crowds that arrive as reliably as spawning salmon.
Along for the walk
In fall, join a group hike through the glowing forest.
In fall, everyone wants to be in the woods.
The Superior Hiking Trail Association organizes hikes on Minnesota's North Shore. The Nature Conservancy and Sierra Club host forays to their favorite places. State-park naturalists lead walks. Volunteers on the growing Ice Age National Scenic Trail show off their latest handiwork.
The rest of us get to come along for the ride. One year, I joined the annual Parade of Colors Fall Hike from the Chippewa Moraine Ice Age Interpretive Center, between Bloomer and Cornell in western Wisconsin.
© Beth Gauper, 2007 - 2012 all rights reserved
