Fall Color Report #1 – 2023

It’s that time of year again! Going forward into October we will be sharing our fall color observations for Devil’s Lake State Park & the Baraboo Hills each Thursday as we’ve been doing for many years now. While the Wisconsin Department of Tourism provides a good overview, the Baraboo area’s unique landscape and microclimates mean that while we may have great color in one location, the trees can easily be green or bare just one hill or valley over. We do our best to break these changes down for you as well as let you know the best locations to find bright colors each week. So, let’s get started!

Week 1, September 14th to Sept. 21st.

Right now in our area, the world is still green, but there are splashes of color to be found. You’ll also find a number of trees that have simply dried up and gone yellow due to the summer drought. A few maples have gone red, but most red colors right now are the domain of the sumac and poison ivy! If you’re looking at wide vistas from atop the bluffs the world still looks pretty green.

Some “experts” are suggesting we’ll have an early onset of peak colors this year. Maybe. It’s also possible that with so many trees simply going brown we may have less color this year. I won’t venture a guess at this point.

So the bottom line for the upcoming weekend into next week, is that it still looks like summer out there with an occasional splash of red or yellow created by an individual tree or bush. We certainly don’t expect colors to peak until sometime in early or mid-October.

Photos

This week’s photos come from the top of Devil’s Lake State Park’s East Bluff. As you can see, there are individual trees and plants adding some color, but all-in-all it still looks pretty green out there. This should remain true at least for the next week or so.