When we talk about potential travel destinations and the places you must visit, we often get focused on the man-made attractions. Yes, it’s easy to get jazzed about water slides, baseball parks and football stadiums but, you know what? There’s a whole other side of travel that we’re going to talk about today because Mother Nature is more than capable of creating some amazing travel destinations in her own right.
With that in mind, here are four locales you should consider visiting at this time of year to bask in the fall colors.
1. The Catskills. Located in southeastern New York, this scenic beauty spans 6,000 square miles including half a dozen major river systems and 35 mountains that peak at more than 3,500 feet. Famous for hosting Woodstock, the Catskills area is flush with craft fairs and festivals as everyone rushes out to celebrate the fall colors.
2. Glacier National Park. One of the nation’s most famous national parks, Glacier National Park in Montana is the place to go if you want to enjoy the fall colors in peace. Most tourists and park services shut down for the season at the end of September, allowing you to enjoy the beautiful colors of the local large trees alone while keeping an eye out for mountain goats, bighorn sheep, elk and even bears.
3. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. If beautiful forest sights are what you’re after, you can’t go wrong with the nearly 4 million acres of foliage available in the U.P. The largest forest system in the eastern half of the country, Michigan’s U.P. has more than 20 state parks and three Great Lakes to enjoy while taking in the stunning fall colors.
4. Aspen. OK, we get it, you may want to pick this one for a slightly later travel assignment to enjoy the skiing as well, but there are plenty of fall colors to enjoy in Aspen, particularly from, well, the aspens. Just don’t delay: Aspen’s viewing season is notoriously short, so get out, see the sights and then get the skis ready.