Find This Week's Best Fall Color

This is your 2022 Minnesota Fall Color Update, brought to you by Explore Minnesota. You will receive an email each Thursday afternoon during the fall color season, making it easier than ever to plan a colorful fall adventure.

Plan ahead so you don't miss the fall color show!

Due to the current COVID-19 situation, please visit Explore Minnesota's COVID-19 Information page before traveling.

According to Val Cervenka, the forest health program consultant in the DNR’s Forestry Division, “While there have been occasional color changes already in some stressed trees, overall color this year should be as stunning as we have come to expect if there are sunny days and chilly but not freezing nights as we get more into the season.”

Peak fall color typically washes across Minnesota from mid-September (along the Canadian border) to mid-October (along the Iowa border).

Below, see recommendations for three state parks or trails in each region of Minnesota. If you are out leaf peeping, please share your own photos and tag them #OnlyinMN.  

Fall color is progressing rapidly. Bright yellow birch and aspen are the most common, with some maple trees turning lovely shades of yellow, orange and red. The sumac is a stunning scarlet. Closer to Lake Superior, moose maple and other small shrubs are adding a variety of color to the landscape.

• McCarthy Beach State Park, Side Lake
• Mesabi Trail, Grand Rapids/Eveleth
• Jay Cooke State Park, Carlton

The ash and aspen trees are at peak shades of bright yellow in many parks. Along with ash and aspen, look for bright yellow in the basswood trees. Trees showing subtle changes in color include balsam poplar, and random red and sugar maples. The sumac are filled with stunning orange and red leaves.

• Big Bog State Recreation Area, Waskish
• Heartland State Trail, Park Rapids/Cass Lake
• Hayes Lake State Park, Roseau

The pace of fall color change has become more rapid. Maples are now showing brilliant patches of vibrant orange, red and yellow. The ash trees are displaying marvelous golden yellow hues, and the sumac paints the lower canopy and field and forest edges a scarlet red. The prairie grasses are beautiful shades of gold, maroon and purple.

• Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, Onamia
• Central Lakes State Trail, Fergus Falls/Osakis
• Sibley State Park, New London

More maples and oaks have turned color this week. The hillsides and forests have a golden glow courtesy of the ash, ironwood, basswood, boxelder and hackberry leaves. The roadsides are a bright reddish-maroon due to abundant sumac and dogwood. Some parks in the Three Rivers Park District are at roughly 40% of their way to peak fall color.

• Wild River State Park, Center City
• Afton State Park, Hastings
• Minnesota River State Water Trail, St. Paul/Fort Snelling State Park access

Fall color is progressing nicely in the trees and grasses throughout southern Minnesota. The sumac leaves are deep red, the ash are yellow and many maples are bright red and orange. The maples on the bluffs in southeastern Minnesota add pops of red, orange and yellow.

• Camden State Park, Lynd
• Fort Ridgely State Park, Fairfax
• Sakatah Lake State Park, Waterville