Fall

For fall enjoyment, the Eagle River Area of northeast Wisconsin offers road tours weaving around her Chain of 28 Lakes close into town; a historic boathouses and buildings waterway tour; and maps to beautiful trails in the nearby Nicolet National Forest.

Eagle River’s “Road Trips” map indicates points of historical and general interest; parks for picnics and shore lunches; marked public boat landings, canoe portages, camping/trailer sites; marinas; and the map also keys to wildlife, fun stuff to do along the way, and places to eat.

Another favorite of fall leaf-lookers to the Eagle River area is a visit to the Heritage Drive Scenic Byway just 8 miles east of Eagle River. The byway offers outstanding fall foliage of mixed hardwood and pines, indicates historic points including Indian archaeological sites, and military routes from the Civil war; plus hiking, picnicking, giant hemlock trees, nature trail, and an interpretive center.

More adventurous fall visitors, may wish to take the mapped, self-guided waterway tours on Eagle River’s Chain of 28 Inland Lakes, which encompass dozens of magnificent turn-of-the-century boathouses brimming with history and unique architecture. (Includes boathouse featured in the movie, Omen II; a boathouse that served as a chapel for Our Sisters of Mercy, Sunset Point; boathouses that still harbor antique boats and artifacts; and boathouses significant in Eagle River’s tourism & industrial development).

For the waterway tours, Eagle River offers a fold-out locator map with photos, descriptive, and historical information about the boathouses.

Best Ways to Take in Fall

Wonderful museums, unique, special shopping and antiquing, picnics, watchable wildlife, forests and flowers, restaurants of every description, and a mind boggling litany of special events featuring the rich multi-cultural heritage and history of the area, including the, voyageur/trading, logging and mining heydays, and events like the Annual Cranberry Festival that draw people of all ages from all over the world, year-after-year.

Fish for walleye, northern, muskies and panfish on the chain of 28 Lakes. Every type of lunker gamefish, fowl, and seasonally hunted animal. The finest you’ll ever experience. Guides, equipment, advice. . .all there, all the time, especially in the glory of fall!

Hiking, biking and nature: Nicolet National Forest, Sylvania Wilderness; Trees For Tomorrow Environmental Center; Canoeing on the Wisconsin and Deerskin Rivers; Fish Hatchery and walleye rearing ponds.

Tour cranberry bogs and the winery.

Unique, quaint, special shopping, antiques, and food products. Cranberry Specialties; Original Cranberry Glassware; candles, cookbooks, potpourris, etc.

Fine gifts and collectible items; galleries and gifts, from wildlife art to cookbooks to wood accessories. Eagle River’s range includes major bakery, small bakeries, specialty candy stores, and a local cheesecake enterprise that serves national markets!

[Image: Courtesy of Flickr user kla4067]

Autumn in northern Wisconsin. Breezes blow cooler. The moon and stars seem brighter. Days shorten. Harvests are bountiful. Crowds are gone. Leaves turn colors. Wisconsin’s exquisite beauty and pristine environment beckon. And the colors dazzle!

It’s time to drive, hike or bike amid thousands of colorful acres of Wisconsin forests, meadows, and wetlands garnished with glittering streams, rivers and glacial lakes. It’s time to watch eagles soar; see wildlife cavort; and listen for the call of the loon.

Pick a road, path, or stream in any of these areas for elegant, fiery reds, oranges, golds and browns, plus watchable wildlife, birds, world class fishing, biking, golf, shopping, and antiquing.

Stop for fresh cranberries, wild rice, antiques, or gifts at area shops. Seek silence, or the quiet bustle of small towns, where the locals are as unspoiled as the surroundings.

There are so many northern Wisconsin destinations to savor in the fall…

[Image: Courtesy of Mike Crowley; available for sale at his website Life in the Northwoods]

The ever-so-slight nip in the air, bringing mists at dusk and dawn.

The unrelenting beauty of orange and red and yellow wherever you look or peek or stare. . . as the trees change.

The smell of acorns, wild mushrooms, and drying leaves, as you crackle along a forest trail.

The moon. . . the brightest and clearest saucer, as it reflects its magic on everything, accompanied by the haunting howl of a timber wolf in all its magnificence.

Cattails puffing their brown seeds and white fluff.

Darkening coats and large antlers of the deer as they cavort and compete toward the upcoming rut.

The sounds and sights of branches being rubbed. . . and the bugling of the elk as they cavort and compete towards the upcoming rut.

Ravenous black bears gorging on berries and nuts as they prepare for hibernation.

The sights and sounds of a thousand-million birds gathering, then flocking, then speeding off in great groups towards southern warmth.

Singing camp songs and half-sleeping on someone’s shoulder as a wood fire boils and bubbles the coffee.

The pine trees becoming the greenest thing left anywhere.

Trophy musky coming up from the depths to seize the huge suckers and jerkbaits as in no other season.

Cold, driving rains that portend what’s ahead, while adding life and purity to the aquifers.

Long hikes, with the forest revealing all the things no longer hidden from view.

Owls swooping as they search the clearing meadows and wetlands for voles and mice.

Scampering squirrels storing as many nuts as they can find, chirping at one-another frenetically.

That’s fall in Northern Wisconsin and the Northwoods.

Come and be part of it all.

Kids, families, seniors, singles.

©2005, Creative Brilliance Associates. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without written permission.

[Image: Courtesy of Mike Crowley; available for sale at his website Life in the Northwoods]