Michigan fall color · field guide
Ann Arbor and the Irish Hills in southeast Michigan usually peak around October 20 to 28, the last real fall color in the state. Maples turn through the city and the rolling lake country to the west, and the oaks hold their russet well into November after everything north has dropped. The final week of October is the window.
Southeast Michigan turns last and turns slowly. The Irish Hills west of Ann Arbor are a pocket of glacial hills and small lakes where maple and oak color reflects on the water, and in the city the campus and the Huron valley carry the season. Where northern color is over in a flash, the oaks here go deep red and bronze and hang on, a long, late finish to the Michigan fall.
US-12, the old Sauk Trail, runs through the Irish Hills past the chain of small lakes west of Ann Arbor, the set-piece drive of the southeast. Closer in, the river roads along the Huron through Dexter and Ann Arbor string together park and water color. The Waterloo and Pinckney recreation areas open more of the lake-and-hill country.
The Waterloo-Pinckney Trail crosses the largest state recreation area in the Lower Peninsula, through hardwood and around kettle lakes. In Ann Arbor, Nichols Arboretum and the Huron riverfront parks give easy walks through strong city color.
The Huron River through Ann Arbor, the Argo to Gallup run, is an easy urban paddle past turning riverbank trees. The lakes of the Waterloo country offer flat-water paddling under the hills.
Plan for the last week of October, and do not write off the first days of November. This is the latest-peaking part of Michigan, so it is the right destination once northern color is gone. The oaks in particular hold russet long after the maples, extending the season.
Ann Arbor and southeast Michigan usually peak around October 20 to 28, the last fall color in the state. The maples turn through the last week of October and the oaks hold russet into November.
US-12 through the Irish Hills west of the city, past a chain of small glacial lakes ringed in maple and oak. The Huron River roads through Dexter and the Waterloo recreation area add park and water color.
It is the warmest, southernmost part of the state, so it gets the first frosts last. That makes Ann Arbor and the Irish Hills the place to go in late October and early November after northern color has dropped.
The Saugatuck lakeshore to the west peaks on a similar late schedule. Saginaw Bay and central Michigan turn a few days earlier.