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The Minnesota State Parks and Trails Fall Color Update newsletter is sent Thursday mornings in September through October of the leaf peeping season.
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A recipe for brilliant colors
 📷: Theresa M., Great River Bluffs State Park - taken 10/2/23
This season’s forecast is shaping up to be a treat for your eyes with the landscape turning into a veritable buffet of rich maple syrup hues, pumpkin spice shades, and a cornucopia of golden leaves!
🌾 Will We Get a Golden Caramel Crust or Burnt Toast? Mild summer droughts can bring out a toasty glow in our leaves, but a severe drought can leave our fall display looking more like burnt toast. Thankfully, after being parched in 2023, our trees have been sipping on a steady brew of rain this year, giving them the hydration they need to serve up some dazzling colors.
💦 Rising Like a Perfectly Baked Soufflé— Since early June 2024, Minnesota has been completely drought-free, a refreshing change from the dry spell of recent years! Our rain-soaked spring might have caused a bit of leaf disease here and there, but it didn’t spoil the whole batch. The trees have been storing up energy like your favorite comfort food, ready to burst into color when the time is just right.
☀️ Sunny Days and Crisp Nights: The Perfect Ingredients for Color—As we head further into September, the combination of sunny days and cool, crisp nights is like adding just the right amount of spice to your fall recipe. If we’re lucky, we’ll get that perfect balance of sugar and spice that makes the leaves burst into vivid scarlets, zesty yellows, and deep pumpkin oranges. But heads up—an early snow or a hard freeze could chill the colors faster than an overbaked pie.
So what’s on the menu for this fall? While we can’t predict every detail, one thing’s for sure: Mother Nature is cooking up something special, and it’s bound to be deliciously beautiful!
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We have a special treat for you this week! Enjoy a guest blog from the delightfully quirky Amber Estenson, known to her social media followers as 'That Midwestern Mom' on TikTok and Instagram. Based in Frazee, Minnesota, the opera singer turned elementary school music teacher enjoys sharing our state's unique culinary identity with the world—think hotdish and marshmallow fluff! Amber has cooked up a delicious dessert for you to try while visiting a park this fall. Read the blog below or watch her visit to Itasca State Park. Enjoy!
Fall is the perfect time of year to visit beautiful Itasca State Park! The humidity is finally bearable, the mosquitoes are a bit more under control, and before we know it, the beautiful fall colors will be here. Whenever my friends or family visit me, we always try to take a trip to Itasca, as it’s the headwaters of the Mississippi river. Here the river starts its 2552-mile journey down to the Gulf of Mexico. Since this past weekend, there was a chill in the air and the humidity was bearable, we decided to make one of my favorite recipes on the campfire. Nothing says fall to me more than a good apple crisp!
Camp Fire Apple Crisp 🔥🍏🥧
Dry ingredients:
2/3 cup quick cook rolled oats
2 T flour
Pinch of all spice (or nutmeg)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
2T brown sugar
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Combine in a Tupperware container and keep sealed until you arrive at the campsite. Add 4 tablespoons of butter and mix until crumbly once you are ready to assemble your foil packets
Chop four Honeycrisp apples into chunks, the smaller chunks, the faster they will cook on the fire.
Toss apples with a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 tablespoons of brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
I made two foil packets by putting a sheet of parchment paper inside of three sheets of heavy duty tinfoil. I added half of the apples with half of the crumble on top to the center of the foil packet, folded it like an envelope in the center, and rolled the ends.
I cooked the foil packets in the fire coals for about 20 minutes, turning about every five minutes.
Serve with Cool Whip or on its own, and enjoy!
The trees were almost entirely green and Itasca State Park this past weekend so I don’t predict we will see peak foliage until at least the first week of October. It does tend to get colder up here quicker, so my official estimation for peak foliage is October 10!
What’s your favorite recipe and which state parks will you be visiting this year?
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 Hayes Lake State Park
 📷: Lori Warne, Hayes Lake State Park - taken 9/16/23
Nestled within the vast, beautiful Beltrami Island State Forest, Hayes Lake State Park is the perfect rustic getaway to view fall colors this season.
With 13 miles of hiking trail, five miles of mountain bike trail and seven miles of horse trail, you get to choose your own adventure to enjoy the sights and sounds of the park around you. Take a hike along the Pine Ridge Trail to see the golden leaves, or go horseback riding along the horse trails that lead into Beltrami Island State Forest. When night falls, relax at the campgrounds with a cozy campfire under the starry skies.
Fall color viewing is only one of many activities you can do at Hayes Lake State Park! Hayes Lake is actually human-made, created 50 years ago by building a dam on the Roseau River. Today, the lake is home to abundant wildlife, including beavers, loons and herons. Visitors can enjoy viewing wildlife on the lake or rent a boat, canoe or kayak to get out on the water themselves. Avid anglers can also enjoy catching plentiful crappie, sunfish, large mouth pass and northern pike!
The changing of the leaves also signals the fall migration of birds and pollinators. Birdwatchers can view a wide variety of bird species (over 200!) that have been spotted in or near the park. Borrow a birding kit from the park office to get started! Watch the birds and the changing leaves along the peaceful lakeshore.
Hayes Lake State Park is truly a hidden gem within the beautiful wilderness of Beltrami Island State Forest. Head north this fall to experience it for yourselves!
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