Favorites for Fall

Best of fall
The chase is on as autumn colors start to coat the countryside.

Colors of the North Shore
In fall, eager crowds pursue the hues along Lake Superior.

Autumn along the St. Croix
On fall days, this scenic river valley is dressed to impress.

15 great fall views
From these overlooks, see rolling waves of color light up the landscape.

Fall in Door County
On this Wisconsin peninsula, autumn colors gild a much-loved landscape.

Autumn in the Brainerd Lakes
In fall, this lake-resort area is a hideaway in plain sight.

Wisconsin Dells in fall
For many, the scenery is best when the crowds are gone.

So many festivals, so little fall

The season is short, so go on a power trip and catch two or three festivals each weekend. Here's where to go.

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?

You can't do it all, but you can do a lot. Just go on a power trip — to two, even three festivals in one weekend.

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30 classic fall hikes

For autumn scenery, these beautiful trails are the best of the best.

An autumn Saturday dawns, sunny and mild. It's a perfect day for hiking — but where?

This time of year, you could walk down the street and see something nice.

But if you're looking for the kind of hike that makes you marvel at nature and feel glad to be alive, you'll probably have to look a little farther afield.

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Pursuing the hues

With luck, leaf peepers in the Upper Midwest can squeeze seven 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.

Predictions always are chancy. What experts look for are summer rains that give trees plenty of moisture, and sunny days that are warm but not hot enough to stress trees.

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Autumn in the studios

On fall art tours, treasure hunters strike gold.

In September and October, artists everywhere throw open their studio doors, inviting the public to see some fall colors along with fine art.

It's tempting because of the scenic landscapes in which so many artists live: the bluffs of northeast Iowa, the coulees of southwest Wisconsin, the towns around Lake Pepin, the lumpy terrain of the Ice Age Trail.

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10 cool ways to see fall colors

When the trees put on a show, get a front-row seat that can't be beat.

In fall, you don't need to limit yourself to seeing the colors while speeding by in a car or even at a snail's pace from a hiking trail.

You also can watch the show on horseback, by boat or from a train. Or try a different kind of conveyance — say, covered wagon, chairlift or Venetian gondola.

The important thing is get out there and see as much as you can while it lasts. Here are 10 cool ways to view the hues.

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Toasting Oktoberfest

These 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.

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15 great fall drives

Here are 15 great places to chase the colors through glorious autumn landscapes.

On a crisp, sunny fall day, we all get the urge to go for a drive.

The countryside is alight with color, and there's a lot going on — art-studio tours, corn mazes, hay rides and harvest festivals in every little town.

And you'll be chasing the colors, of course.

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Great grape stomps

At winery 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.

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