5 Things to Do When the Leaves Fall

Oh, the weather outside is… well, when it’s just right, to be honest.

It’s now October, and the fall season is well under way. School’s been in for about a month now, and the fall sports teams are starting to show how good their teams are this year. The weather (at least up here in the Mitten) has gotten colder, so it’s sweatshirt and blue jeans weather again. It’s time to start enjoying the fun things Michigan has to offer in the fall! Here’s 5 ideas to have fun with if you can’t think of anything.

1. Leaves and Trees Are Actually Fun

Michigan is home to over a thousand campgrounds statewide, each of them housing their own special sliver of the great fall experience. You can camp deep in the forests, or right on the water in the sand; either way, the experience is one you don’t ever want to forget. Be sure to also enjoy those leaves you start to see falling everywhere. While it may be annoying to have to continually rake them up day after day, making the job into a fun game is always the best way to go, especially when you see who can make the most leaves scatter around when you jump in the piles. When it gets dark, you can enjoy the crackle and heat of a bonfire, a perfect place to make both your dinner and your dessert. There’s nothing better than eating something with that exquisite over-the-fire taste, and who can say no to that perfect sandwich of marshmallows and chocolate on a graham cracker?

2. Get the Michigan Cuisine

Michigan is home to many different kinds of freshly grown fruits and vegetables. From the tart ripe cherries and even tarter ripe blueberries to the sweet and savory pumpkins and the juicy apples, Michigan has recipes for these foods that can blow your socks off, all of them made daily in our mom-and-pop restaurants in all of our towns and cities, from the smallest hick-town to big old Detroit. Just make sure you bring home leftovers to enjoy the fun the next day!

3. Apples, Apples, Apples

Another thing Michigan is never lacking in is its apple orchards. Here, people can come and enjoy freshly made apple cider and donuts in the general stores, play games and fun sports in the clearings around the area, and can take a tractor ride out to the apple orchards to find your favorite flavors and pick as many as you can carry. If you’re lucky, your orchard may even have a famous corn maze to try and solve. Don’t get lost!

4. Where There's a Will, There's a Way... and a Football

If there’s one sport Michigan truly enjoys, it’s football. Whether it’s a small town high school game or a big shot Lions game in downtown Detroit, Michiganders an all find some type of fun in a football stadium. Our great college football teams also give fans another team to root for (I’m not even going to get into the rivalry between them, though, that’s a different story), between our two Big Ten teams and our dozens of smaller (yet no less great) other college teams. Touchdown!

5. UP Galore

If you’re looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, going to the Upper Peninsula is the place for you. Countless back roads and windy highways through bright and colorful forests lead to hundreds of miles of trails, many of them leading to beautiful small waterfalls. If you ever drive up there and see a bunch of cars along the side of the road randomly, STOP. Right around there is probably a small trail to an amazing backdrop of reds, oranges, yellows and browns, complete with the waterfall picture your friends will be jealous of. The air is crisp and clean, and helps to melt away the stresses of the big city.

Michigan has so many great things to do during the fall, and you can’t miss out on any of them. Make sure to spend at least some of your time enjoying the great weather, and have fun celebrating the fall season in style!