Favorites for Fall

Old World Christmas markets
Local versions of the traditional German Christkindlmarkt are a hit during the holidays.

15 great trails to ride in fall
Here's where to get your fill of flora, fauna and fall colors.

One fall swoop
The roller-coaster hills and riverside bluffs of northeast Iowa yield a photo album of panoramas.

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

A roof in the woods
In state and county parks and forests, visitors love their camper cabins.

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

Wisconsin's cheese country
In Monroe, the Swiss stay true to the flavors of their forebears.

November girlfriend getaways

When hunting season starts, women head out to have fun with their friends.

In November, women make a break for it.

As men sit in deer stands or watch football games on TV, women hit the road with their friends. They shop, visit spas, sip wine, take cooking classes and see musicals their husbands or boyfriends don't want to see.

For women, November is a great month. Not only do they have a good excuse to get away with their friends, but they can get a head start on shopping for Christmas.

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Wisconsin's Rustic Roads

On quiet lanes, motorists ramble into the heart of the countryside.

In Wisconsin, people build whole trips around the roads less traveled.

Their destination? Nowhere. And on one of the state's lovely Rustic Roads, nowhere usually is enough.

Across the state, brown-and-yellow signs point to lightly traveled roads that preserve remnants of the past — the 1870 Cana Island lighthouse (Rustic Road 38 near Baileys Harbor), or Amish farms (Rustic Road 56, south of Ontario.)

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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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Wings over the Mississippi

Along the river in Minnesota and Wisconsin, tundra-swan watchers have a honkin' good time during the November migration.

In the sloughs of the Upper Mississippi, birds of a feather flock together.

Bird-watchers, especially. On chilly days in late fall, they crowd onto wooden platforms to watch tundra swans paddling around sloughs of the Mississippi River.

This big bird needs a lot of fuel for its flight from the Arctic Circle to the marshes of Chesapeake Bay.

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Greatest hits of the Ice Age

In Wisconsin, the best walking trails are gifts from the glaciers.

If you've ever walked in Wisconsin, chances are you've walked on the edge of a glacier.

The ice is gone, but not the rubble it pushed across the landscape, or the rock its melting waters carved. As the last glacier retreated, it left a path that geologists can follow as easily as yellow lines on a highway.

That path now is the 1,100-mile Ice Age National Scenic Trail, with 620 miles marked, usually by yellow rectangles tacked to trees. It's easy to follow in the forest, but many of the most spectacular spots are right along highways.

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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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