Riding your motorcycle and camping while the trees around you are a million shades of yellow, red and orange is probably one of our favorite things. This is why our last S’more of the season is in the Smoky Mountains, on October 20-24 (a couple of spots are left: book yours now!). However, you don’t need to go to the Smokies to enjoy the foliage. The Midwest may not be as lucky as the New England in terms of colors, but we do have areas - in particular Wisconsin and Minnesota - that offer great chances of enjoying the Fall colors.
There are several resources online to track the progress of the “Red Army” - I have attached a few below. The best and most detailed is the Wisconsin one, while other are less refined (the Michigan and Illinois ones, for instance). Many of them haven’t even started tracking the changes yet.
OVERALL US FOLIAGE TOOL- Great interactive map that lets you see the foliage forecast week by week - just slide the timeline at the bottom and see what happens. According to these predictions, the Smokies will be in full peak or almost at peak exactly when we are going to be there for our S’more. Also Wisconsin will be at peak around the same time. Most of Michigan is supposed to peak the first ten days of October, while the UP and most of Minnesota will be at peak a little earlier than that. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Kentucky are peaking later on.
Wisconsin Foliage Tracker - This is the best tracker, by a mile. It lets you click on each county and it provides you a detailed forecast at a very local level. It is already up and running. I wish more States simply copied the Wisconsin system.
Minnesota Foliage Tracker - Not as good as the Wisconsin one, but pretty useful. It is already tracking the foliage.
