Here in northern Minnesota you can feel fall in the wind. The freeze warnings have come; the mosquitoes are dead or dying. This begins my very favorite time in this watery, forested landscape: northern Minnesota fall colors.
The Minnesota DNR predicts this year’s season of fall foliage will be “brilliant,” according to the AP. I can tell you that the colors were a little later than they were last year, with the canvass out my window in Itasca County still mostly green through most of September. But we knew that the colors will come, and with recent rain followed by a dry, cool spell and a short heat wave, the DNR was right about this one.
UPDATE: As the weekend of Sept. 20-22 arrives, we’re starting to hit colors on the Iron Range. In Itasca Co, Friday morning brought the first sign that most trees had begun to change. This weekend will be pretty good, but next weekend ought to be approaching 50-75 percent peak. So long as the wind stays down, the rest of September and first part of October should be excellent for fall colors.
UPDATE II: On Sept. 29, the leaves are now approaching peak in Itasca County. There is still a lot of green out there, though, so we have a lot to look forward to as October comes … so long as a big wind doesn’t blow it all down.
Iron Range Tourism has information on fall color tours, though you will probably have fine luck on your own, seeking out rural highways and any place you can get up to some altitude to look down on a forest. The North Shore. Duluth. The Brainerd Lakes. Just know that the leaves turn faster the farther north you go, and once they start turning any kind of wind storm could knock them down early.
The DNR posts a report every Thursday about the current status of Minnesota fall colors.
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