Fall Foliage Frenzy
It's the best time of year to take a hike
It’s a common misconception that fall hiking is great because of the changing foliage. Pretty colors are a bonus, but the weather is really what makes fall the ideal time to get outdoors. Trees need cooler weather for their leaves to turn and I need cooler weather to (comfortably) hike more miles.
If you try to time a fall trip to coincide with peak foliage, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Campsites near prime Midwestern leaf peeping areas book up early, so you’re forced to choose your dates when everything is still lush and green. You can consult the annual foliage forecasts, however, nature is unpredictable.
I took a trip to northern Wisconsin in October 2022. The day before I drove up, storms rolled through the area and wind knocked most of the leaves to the ground. From almost peak to past peak overnight.
However, there’s beauty to be found throughout the fall season. Don’t believe me? Every photo in this post is from that past peak trip, so you can judge for yourself.
Before peak, the green of the surrounding trees makes the early turners really pop. I love driving north as the leaves start changing, going from the green of Chicago to a few stray pops of color near Milwaukee to clumps of gold and red as I move past Wausau. Fall is my favorite season, so I want to savor every moment and that includes the mostly green views. Plus, that shifting color palette builds anticipation—the promise of cozy sweaters, freshly pressed apple cider (and apple cider doughnuts), and crackling campfires.
After peak, the skeletal trees and fading colors add a moodiness to the landscape that evokes watercolor paintings and characters lost on the moors in British novels. The contours of the topography come into focus as brush dies back and reveals hidden hummocks and kettles. If you’re lucky, a bit of fog will creep across the trail to enhance the ambiance. The views are bare, but not barren. You just have to be curious and train your eyes to appreciate the quieter beauty.
Even if you do manage to show up to a scenic spot during peak color on a day with perfect weather, your views may not look like what you see in the glossy travel brochures or on Instagram. Those stunning photographs rarely show the hordes of other leafpeepers that you have to contend with at popular sites, especially on weekends.
Though I’m a proponent of everyone getting outdoors, I also get cranky when I’m stuck in a crowd. A few falls ago, I backpacked the length of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. For the first two days, I saw almost no one outside of the campgrounds—it was just me and the piles of bear scat in the middle of the trail. On the third day, I reached the stretch between Chapel Beach and Mosquito River—the quintessential views of the park—and the trail’s atmosphere changed. Impatient day hikers pushed (literally) past me on the single track trail only to stop short to catch their breath. On the rocky overlooks, I was distracted from the panoramic views by people posing for photos a little too close to the bluff edge. Someone lost a long sleeve shirt on the side of the trail—likely strapped to the back of their pack and then snagged by a low tree branch—and I was stunned by the cold response I received from other hikers during my attempts to reconnect the shirt with its owner. That picturesque section of trail is famous for a reason, but I couldn’t fully enjoy it.1
That’s a long winded way of saying that your not-quite-peak foliage experience might be head and shoulders above the peak one (and probably will include fewer heads and shoulders of strangers in your photos).
While there’s an urge to seek out the prettiest possible spot for fall color—I’m sure the Top Ten lists for your area will be dropping any day now—I’m more inclined to immerse myself in a mid-tier display of foliage. A campsite with plenty of deciduous trees (and ideally some water) is one of my favorite ways to enjoy the changing palette.2 Is there a better way to start your morning than by unzipping your tent to see the forest shimmering in the golden hour? Or a better way to end your night than by watching the flames of your campfire illuminate the flame-colored leaves around you? And best of all, you don’t have to share your campsite with any strangers.
Camping is also a hedge against a faulty foliage forecast. Even if the colors are underwhelming, at least you get to enjoy s’mores and a night sleeping under the stars!
Do I still aim to go somewhere beautiful during (what I hope will be) peak foliage? Of course! But I temper my expectations. Some of the trees may still be green or some may be a little bare. Either way, I get to be outside in the midst of them all!
So don’t fret if you can’t snag reservations for a weekend trip to your favorite spot during peak color—I promise that it’s still worth getting outside for a hike this fall.
Read another story from my 2022 fall foliage trip:
If someone asks me about visiting Pictured Rocks, I will wax poetic about the Beaver Creek backcountry campground (and the Beaver Basin Wilderness, more generally), but my only opinion about what most consider to be the main attraction of that 42 mile hike is to avoid Chapel Beach on a weekend.
I’m a fan of the northern loop of Brunet Island State Park in Cornell, WI. My go-to campsite is #37, but if you are less particular about your distance from the pit toilets, all of the waterfront sites are lovely.
One fun thing about hiking before peak season is that you get to see the pattern of leaf color change. You can see the "frosting" of color where the sun hits most.