Fall Color Report for Michigan Upper Peninsula

[John Hollenberg]

I thought others might be interested in where we have (and haven't) found good Fall color on our trip:

October 2 - Minneapolis, MN to Duluth, MN - nothing exciting

October 3 - Some color in Northern Wisconsin, but didn't see anything really interesting until we got
to western end of Michigan Upper Peninsula.  A few spots of pretty good color on the western side of
the peninsula up to Iron River and Crystal Falls, but very focal.  Went over to Munising, where color
was not well-developed.

October 4 - Foliage Network web site showed High Color on the Southern/Eastern edge of the peninsula,
so we drove over there (was fantastic several years ago there, but was also a week later then).  Result:
a dud.  Decided to drive back to western peninsula, ended up in Iron Mountain.

October 5 - first day of our trip it didn't rain, found spots in Iron Mountain on I-141 and side roads that showed
brilliant reds, oranges and yellows.  While focal, the colors in small areas were excellent.  
Still cloudy, so most shots were intimate with no sky included:

[attachment=17008:_MG_7289.jpg]
 
October 6 - rained a lot all day.  The first 13 miles west of Iron Mountain on I-141 had a lot of spots with good
color, again with mixtures of reds, oranges and yellows.  These spots were High Color, some near Peak.
Drove loop through Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and came North on 139. A LOT of color here, with moderate leaf drop.
The section of 139 up to Iron River had many large areas judged to be at Peak--mostly oranges, some reds
and yellows.  Outstanding viewing.  The first few miles West of Iron River on I-141 was also at Peak, miles
of nearly solid oranges:

[attachment=17009:_MG_1985.jpg]

Hope this information is useful for anyone coming to the area.

--John

[larryg]

Thanks for the post.  I just returned from UP   It rained steady from Friday through Today.

Started at Lake of the Clouds, very disapointing color
Drove to Eagle River and onto Copper Harbor  some color from Copper Harbor to Pigeon  (not too much subject matter in the rain)  did shoot some images on the road from Eagle Harbor to Copper Harbor (color, mist, fog etc.)

I found on the Internet that Florence County was at Peak colors (Wisc fall color)  so we drove to Florence and in and around the National Forest area   very muddy on the side roads with very minimal subject matter.

Then drove to Iron Mtn (still raining through Sunday)   mostly found color  north on 141 (Crystal Falls up to about 45 miles north).  Drove down several side roads.  drove to Kings Lake  (best color found yet around lake-in the rain)

I gave up  and came home early (today)  rained all the way home until just about home then the sun came out.

All the usual spots (from successful trips in past) were a disapointment.  


Sounds like you had some good luck.  Things will probably improve in about a week or two?

[John Hollenberg]

All the usual spots (from successful trips in past) were a disappointment.

Yes, we had a pretty tough time finding good color, took 3 days and a lot of driving.
It may just be later than usual, judging by comparisons with past years on the
Foliage Network web site (http://foliagenetwork.com).  I am wondering if this is
year to year variation, or yet another manifestation of the effects of Global Warming.

Sounds like you had some good luck.  Things will probably improve in about a week or two?

Probably will for a lot of the peninsula.  We were a bit surprised at how fast the color changed
once it finally got going.  There was a very big change over 3 days between the two times we
went through Iron River.  The area just West of Iron River is at peak now, and may be past
peak in a few more days judging by the rapid rate of change we observed there.  Fortunately,
tomorrow is forecast to be mostly sunny, so we hope to get some good shooting in.

--John

[Geoff Wittig]

Fortunately,
tomorrow is forecast to be mostly sunny, so we hope to get some good shooting in.

--John

Call me crazy, but I much prefer shooting fall color in cloudy weather. Ideally dead calm, light rain or rain just ended, bright overcast. The colors really pop, and contrast is easily within digital capture's dynamic range. Sunny days instead really limit what you can do; most of the day you can scarcely shoot anything except backlit leaves against blue sky, and there's only a very narrow time window at each end of the day when the contrast of sunlit trees becomes manageable.

[larryg]

Call me crazy, but I much prefer shooting fall color in cloudy weather. Ideally dead calm, light rain or rain just ended, bright overcast. The colors really pop, and contrast is easily within digital capture's dynamic range. Sunny days instead really limit what you can do; most of the day you can scarcely shoot anything except backlit leaves against blue sky, and there's only a very narrow time window at each end of the day when the contrast of sunlit trees becomes manageable.

LOL  you are right about the cloud cover and mist  but with very little color and a constant downpour it wasn't very appealing.


Sunlight (especially bright with blue skies) is a real downer for color saturation.

[John Hollenberg]

Call me crazy, but I much prefer shooting fall color in cloudy weather. Ideally dead calm, light rain or rain just ended, bright overcast. The colors really pop, and contrast is easily within digital capture's dynamic range.

Of course you are right, but I still like some variation in lighting.  In addition, I wouldn't have gotten a photo like this:

[attachment=17053:_MG_2124.jpg]

October 8 - Final day of the trip.  As I suspected Fall Color is now better a bit further South.  The section of highway 8 in Wisconsin between
Goodman and Woodboro was at peak--color was amazing.  Further West on Highway 8 was past peak.

--John

[Geoff Wittig]

Of course you are right, but I still like some variation in lighting.  In addition, I wouldn't have gotten a photo like this:

--John

Very nice photo.
I'm getting fidgety and depressed as I watch the foliage around me rapidly turning toward peak; I'm stuck working through the middle of next week. I'm taking a photo workshop in Maine from 10/16; hoping and praying there'll still be a few good pockets of color left by that time.

Sort of a drag having to plan autumn photo trips a year in advance; at that kind of remove, it's dumb luck to get good color.

[John Hollenberg]

I'm getting fidgety and depressed as I watch the foliage around me rapidly turning toward peak; I'm stuck working through the middle of next week. I'm taking a photo workshop in Maine from 10/16; hoping and praying there'll still be a few good pockets of color left by that time.

Yes, it is definitely a crap shoot.  One thing that may be in your favor is that color near large bodies of water tends to turn later, due to the moderating effect on temperature that the water has.  Hopefully you can find such a place to get good color.  If you haven't been to the Michigan Upper Peninsula, definitely go there at some point.  The Pictured Rocks area is great.  According to John Gerlach the peak usually happens between October 6 and 12, so you can have a pretty good idea when to be there:  http://www.gerlachnaturephoto.com/FallColorWorksh.html  I haven't taken his workshop, as I am too independent and prefer to find stuff on my own; however I have heard good reports about it.

--John

[Geoff Wittig]

Yes, it is definitely a crap shoot.  One thing that may be in your favor is that color near large bodies of water tends to turn later, due to the moderating effect on temperature that the water has.  Hopefully you can find such a place to get good color.  If you haven't been to the Michigan Upper Peninsula, definitely go there at some point.  The Pictured Rocks area is great.  According to John Gerlach the peak usually happens between October 6 and 12, so you can have a pretty good idea when to be there:  http://www.gerlachnaturephoto.com/FallColorWorksh.html  I haven't taken his workshop, as I am too independent and prefer to find stuff on my own; however I have heard good reports about it.

--John

Quite so.
I took one of John Gerlach's UP Michigan fall color workshops at least 10 years ago. It hit the peak of fall color, and the weather was absolutely perfect for the entire week: dead calm, bright overcast, with just enough rain to keep all the trees saturated. This was back in the film era, shooting Velvia. Unfortunately digital has spoiled me; the quality of those 35 mm slides just doesn't hold up in comparison.
John and Barb Gerlach are nice folks and very experienced teachers; their workshops are ideal for beginners. John's cornball humor and mercenary/utilitarian approach to the environment can get tiresome after a while, though.

I highly recommend Rod & Marlene Planck's Upper Peninsula fall color workshop...any of their workshops, really. Rod is incredibly knowledgeable about natural history, botany, and wildlife. You can find plenty of subjects on your own, but the environmental/natural history education alone is worth the price of admission. They're also simply wonderful people.